Reuse of Waste through Arts and Crafts (WasteArt)

Population increase, economic development and materialistic innovations increase demand for Earth’s finite resources. Human not only produce low-value waste, but also through innovations, such as microplastics, pollute ecosystems, thus damaging their own livelihood. Waste management is especially a topical problem due to the increase of global population and its consumption habits that lead to serious environmental problems. In the European Union (EU), only 40% of waste is recycled or reused. According to Eurostat data, the situation in Latvia and Estonia is less pleasing and shows around 20% of waste recycling. Most of the waste is landfilled or incinerated. The 7th EU Environmental Action Programme sets the following priorities: to reduce the amount of waste generated; to maximize recycling and re-use; to limit incineration to non-recyclable materials and to phase out landfilling to non-recyclable and non-recoverable waste. Both countries still have a lot to do to fulfil the waste policy of EU and one of the steps is to raise public awareness and understanding of the problem.

Project WasteArt will use the capacity of contemporary art and the diversity of artistic practices to increase public awareness of the vast amounts of waste produced by human daily activities. As well as through the introduction of Waste Audit approach the WasteArt project will promote the Waste 3R at kindergartens and schools.