Second International Event for the WASTE – May 2023  Panevėžys (Lithuania)

The second meeting pushed forward the work done during the previous international event in Poland, moving from analyzing the local policies and actions at the public authority level to giving voice to the community and civil society’s role in advocating for forward-looking waste management and environment protection.

​

Participants from 10 countries took part in the activities, and have been engaged in different actions to directly observe practices from the hosting partner, with a visit to the Waste Management Center of Panevėžys Region that allowed the delegates to confront practices and methodologies of waste collection, separation, recycling and dumping around Europe, and to discuss initiatives to engage citizens in contributing actively in the process.

​

A workshop “Presentation of partners’ grassroots examples of citizens initiatives” has been aimed at sharing practices of local community engagement in waste management and collection, resulting in a collective agreement on the fact that the best way to protect our future is to educate citizens towards a zero waste philosophy since also the collection and management of waste creates pollution. A great focus on the necessity to start educating young citizens since primary school has been put in all the interventions, but also it has been highlighted the need to make fast and effective actions to change the community’s perspective now since our time is running out.

Two seminars have then been carried out with the intervention of experts: one “Citizens environmental advocacy at local and EU level” saw the introduction of the European Citizens’ Initiative, as the main form of citizens’ engagement in the EU policy-making process, and the other by Dr. Paulina Budrytė, Kaunas Technological University, that stimulate effective reflection on waste management, circular economy and the role of the community.

​

The delegates also had the chance to carry out integrational and cultural activities, such as the Disk Golf tournament, when they got introduced to a new and highly sustainable sport to be carried out in a natural environment. Then, they could visit the various museum in the city, follow a guided tour to get acquainted with the main attractions and the history of Panevėžys, and take part in sports events such as basket and football matches.

​

The International Event resulted in a positive cooperation and all participants took an active part in all the activities, bringing added value and bottom-up contribution to the project.

The next International Event will be held in Birgu (Malta) in November 2023, with the topic “Circular economy and waste management”. The project will meet a different environment, that of a small Mediterranean island, and get in touch with innovative and forward-looking community projects for small communities.