ERASMUS Projects

COM - Circular Organic Management: Supporting the behavioral change in schools around the food and organic waste taking into account its social,environmental and financial dimension

Specific programme: KA220-SCH - Cooperation partnerships in school education

Research team:

Coordinator:

  • UNIVERSIDAD DEL PAIS VASCO/ EUSKAL HERRIKO UNIBERTSITATEA (Spain)

Partners:

  • INNOVATION HIVE (Greece),
  • INCOMMON NON PROFIT CIVIL LAW COMPANY (Greece);
  • Mednarodni institutza implementacijo trajnostnegarazvoja, Maribor (Slovenia)
  • Exeo Lab Srl(Italy)
  • Innomate Ldt. (Turkey)
  • ASOCIATIA GRUPUL DE ACTIUNE LOCALANAPOCA POROLISSUM (Romania)

Total budget: 250.000€ (UPV/EHU: 43.000,00 €)
Total funded: 250.000€ (UPV/EHU: 43.000,00 €)

Start date: 01/10/2022
End date: 30/09/2024

Total duration: 24 months

Brief description: Organic waste, (50% of which is food waste), is a major contributor to environmental problems, such as pollution, landfilling and climate change. Each EU citizen creates approx. 113kg of food waste per year and approx. 222kg of organic waste (Zero Waste Europe, 2020). In addition, in the EU alone, around 88 million tonnes of food are wasted annually. (EC, 2021).On a global scale, food waste accounts for approximately 8% of the total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (UNEP, 2021).

Our motivation for this project is the continual creation of this huge amount of waste - contributing to climate change-which we believe can be addressed through behavior change by citizens (via education) at home, in school and in every day life. The project is motivated not only by the data, but by the understanding that this huge sector of environmental damage can be reduced by the public. We are informed by these statistics and the project is shaped by the fact that through education, these figures can not only be greatly reduced, but also start a wider conversation about ecological issues and citizen action.

Our motivation is further supported by the feasibility of our proposed idea. This large problem can be effectively addressed by empowering citizens with critical thinking education, rather than investing a lot of capital in creating new technology or systems. Through supporting educators to work with learners on issues of food waste, the project will create a far-reaching impact: that is, educators, parents and pupils are not the ‘end beneficiaries’ of an input of information, rather, they are empowered with skills and knowledge to implement changes and also be replicators of change in their communities on a daily basis. The report created out of the data generated through the research, will form the basis of a policy recommendations paper which will support local and national authorities to make changes to both education systems and organic waste management.