© Pierre Weimerskirch
Greenpeace's campaign stresses the reality of refuse: every day roughly 22 tons of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans.
The Luxembourgish Government wants to make more efforts in terms of reducing waste — specifically plastic waste.
Changes can be witnessed across the West: for instance the London Marathon, held at the end of April, went without plastic water bottles. Instead runners were given edible pods – containing water, of course – made out of seaweed extracts. And Luxembourg, too, is home to a growing number of these so-called Green Events. The walker’s federation, for instance, has begun using special cups that are to replace plastic ones.
Luxembourg established a national waste plan in 2018. This aims to scale down food waste by 50%, as well as reduce waste – specifically plastic waste – according to Minister for the Environment, Carole Dieschbourg. Further efforts are to follow.
The introduction of the Eco-Sac lead to an important decrease in the use of plastic bags: 500,000,000 since its initiation in 2016. Free plastic bags have further been banned since January 2019.
The Eco-Box, a kind of reusable "doggy bag", is currently available in 100 restaurants and cantines. 25,000 of these boxes are in use.
The IMS “Zero Single-Use Plastic” project, in turn, aims to eliminate single-use plastic in participating businesses by 2020. So far 54 have agreed to join this movement.
Environmental consequences
Every day, roughly 22 tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean, a grim reality that Greenpeace are trying to move into the public eye. Efforts aimed at reducing waste are also being made at an international level.
In 2013/2014, plastic constituted around 40% of the volume and 18% of the weight of all waste.
The launch of the national Zero Waste Campaign includes a number of workshops and discussions throughout the coming months, held precisely to discuss and debate the future of waste reduction. These will take place in Hosingen, Schifflange, Ell, Echternach and Luxembourg city. Zero waste is the goal, says Robert Schmit, director of environmental administration.
Citizens are encouraged to participate and contribute thoughts and ideas. For those interested, please subscribe to the workshop of your choice via nulloffall.lu.
• 15.05.2019 in Park Hosingen (from 6.30pm to 9pm)
• 04.06.2019 in Schifflange (from 6.30pm to 9pm)
• 13.06.2019 in Ell (from 6.30pm to 9pm)
• 18.06.2019 in Luxembourg (from 6.30pm to 9pm)
• 20.06.2019 in Echternach (from 6.30pm to 9pm)
Video in Luxembourgish
