RAW: Raising Awareness on effective Waste management

The starting point was the conviction that the circular economy is a socio-economic change and it requires a new philosophy of functioning. In order to be fuel to the change, it is key to educate ...

The aim of the project is to raising awareness on effective waste management among employees of chambers of commerce, regional development agencies, local authorities and centres for entrepreneurship development, but also VET teachers, trainers and mentors. RAW foster symbiosis and cooperation between municipalities and entrepreneurs disrupting stereotypical behaviours on handling waste. Inevitable is the fact that solutions should be introduced, on the one hand, forcing, on the other, encouraging businesses and entrepreneurs to increasingly implement eco-design in order to facilitate it and create conditions in which recycling will pay off. However, required are more conscious decisions, taking action from the early stage of a product’s life, starting from the design process, considering what will happen next, how the product will be exploited and whether any of its elements can be re-used in the future. Only then the circular economy strategy has a meaningful impact and isn’t targeted at an action that has already completed its life cycle – which is still usually the case in the realization of the issue among the society.

The methodology applied in the RAW project is based on the ‘’Project cycle management” approach. This consists in implementing work in a number of phases so that the overall activities can be planned, organised, coordinated and controlled effectively and efficiently, to produce the required Project Results (PRs) at the right time, cost and quality. We implemented phases: PH1: Planning Phase -State-of-the-Art-Review on circular economy, waste management and their use in SMEs; -dentification of target group representatives in each partner country - Identification of associated partners - Planning roles and preparation of drafts of project working papers, etc. PH2: Solution Development Phase - Design of Guide on circular economy strategies in business environment -Design of Circular economy awareness app media pack PH3: Solution Implementation and Testing phase -Development of original RAW chapters training - Development of the RAW digital crash course - Testing of the ROW digital crash course PH4: Solution Exploitation and Promotion phase - Setting up of RAW project website - Setting up of RAW channels on social media - Design of Project Logo, leaflet & Multimedia Presentation - Design and development of RAW Digital Newsletters - Organisation of Multiplier Events in all partner countries - Organisation 4 transnational project meetings.

RAW delivered two main results: PR1: Guide on circular economy strategies in business environment and its extension in the form of a digital crash course. PR1 took a form of case studies by professionals already demonstrating a sustainable approach in their business activities. As whole, it's a fundamental material for the implementation of the digital crash course. PR2: Circular economy awareness app. This app is a direct response for the needs of the project target groups. The Circular Economy Awareness App was composed of three main parts: learning pills, strategy maker and footprint tracker. The first part, learning pills, is an extract of the entire course developed in the first result as an OER. In the app only the most important aspects was included, highlighting the key messages and concepts. This part is linked with seven topics of the OER, inviting users to access the full course online. Apart from the learning pills, each of the seven topics include a short quiz that enable users to check their knowledge of the specific aspects of circular economy.