The European Commission, through the Environment Directorate General, announced the nominees for “The LIFE Awards” competition that honors the most efficient European programs funded through the LIFE Program. ECOTIC has been nominated for the “Best of the Best Award”, in the Nature and Environment categories, with the ECOTIC Caravan project. The award ceremony will take place on May 23rd 2018, in Brussels.
The ECOTIC Caravan (ECOTIC LIFE + Caravan - LIFE13INF / RO / 000090) is a project implemented by ECOTIC and co-financed by the European Commission, through the LIFE + Program.
The project duration was 2 years; it closed in June 2016.
Through the implementation of this project ECOTIC aimed to contribute to reducing the risk of climate change by increasing the awareness level regarding correct handling and treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and also by promoting the use of green energy.
The target audience, made up of pupils of grades 0-VIII in the urban area, their teachers and parents, as well as the people living in cities and municipalities in Romania, was informed on the contents of electrical waste, the way it can be correctly recycled and the location of WEEE collection points.
The main attraction of the project was the caravan - a mobile exhibition of the WEEE, where 10 disassembled equipment items (CRT monitor, fridge, washing machine, fixed phone, mobile phones, laptop, computer, toy and iron) were presented and displayed in show cases; their role was to convey the WEEE recycling message by emphasizing their content of hazardous substances, but also their reuse potential as secondary raw materials. Moreover, the caravan was energetically powered by solar panels.
With hundreds of schools involved, tens of local campaigns and seminars dedicated to local authorities, the ECOTIC Caravan still carries on, nowadays visiting schools and localities as part of the “Ecoterrian School” and “The Recycling Station” campaigns.