The 24th Regional Environmental Week (Ympäristöviikko) was organized on 14-20 September 2020, simultaneously in various municipalities and cities of the Päijät-Häme region, Finland: Hartola, Heinola, Hollola, Lahti and Sysmä. The key theme of this year was Clothing – Clothing is a choice, promoting sustainable fashion and textiles. (Teirikko 2020.)
Lahti Environmental Village
The main event of the week, the Environmental Village (Ympäristökylä), was organised on Saturday 19.9.2020 at the Lahti marketplace, already for the nineth time. The program included speeches and presentations of the local environmental actors from different fields and offered activities for families visiting the event. One of the presenters was CECI – Citizen Involvement in Circular Economy Implementation, an Interreg Europe funded project, which is led by LAB University of Applied Sciences. As CECI aims to strengthen the role of every citizen in the circular economy, the project actively participated in the event. CECI together with the Regional Council of Päijät-Häme organised a webinar on Full circle – Sustainable Textiles earlier this year from the same focus area with the event.
Environmental Awards 2020
During the event, Lahti environmental honorary award was given to Riikka-Liisa Aalto, the founder of the Clean Päijät-Häme Environmental Conservation Community (Puhdas Päijät-Häme luonnonsuojeluyhteisö) for her volunteer community garbage collection work (Lahti 2020). The Clean Päijät-Häme Community has been identified also as one of the CECI Good Practices. Furthermore, this practice has been published on the Policy Learning Platform, a freely available database of Good Practices from all over Europe.
Discussions with Citizens
The main stage of the Lahti Environmental Village was surrounded by various booths providing visitors with a wide range of information, concrete examples and practical food for thoughts. One of the booths was shared by the CECI project, together with Telaketju and Askel projects. Telaketju 2 BF – Building business from circular economy of textiles project, that develops the collection, sorting out and refining processes of end-of-life textiles. The Askel – Co-developing services for sustainable living project develops circular and sharing economy services in neighbourhoods of Anttilanmäki and Jalkaranta in Lahti. As Askel project idea was born in the CECI project, naturally, a close cooperation and knowledge exchange has been developed.
During the event, citizens stopped by in the joint booth to discuss the reuse and recycling of textiles in Lahti. Currently, clothes and home textiles, which are still in a good condition can be collected in dedicated charity containers, be given to recycling centres, e.g. PATINA, or sold in flea markets. If the garment or home textile is not suitable for reuse anymore, it is put into energy waste that is utilised as a fuel for producing heat and electricity in Lahti.
As separate collection for textile waste is becoming mandatory in the EU in 2025, a separate collection of textile waste for material recycling needs to be developed. Telaketju is working on this and one of the stakeholders has published instructions for national collection of end-of-life textiles in Finland.
Author
Katerina Medkova works as an RDI Specialist at LAB University of Applied Sciences and is CECI Communication Manager.
References
Teirikko, S. 2020. Lahden seudun Ympäristöviikon julistekilpailu on ratkennut. Vastuullisuusuutiset. [Cited 30 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://vastuullisuusuutiset.fi/fi/kumppaniuutisetsuomeksi/lahden-seudun-ymparistoviikon-julistekilpailu-on-ratkennut/
City of Lahti. 2020. Lahden seudun Ympäristöviikko. [Cited 30 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.lahti.fi/vapaa-aika/tapahtumat/lahden-seudun-ymparistoviikko/?fbclid=IwAR2BKQEJM5eopnF3XbSyxK9JD3Rr2-1qa9o5USLjWl2NT8qQT996a9SCk-4
Links
Link 1. Interreg Europe. 2020a. Project Summary. CECI. [Cited 30 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/ceci/
Link 2. LAB Focus. 2020. Täysi kierros – Tekstiilejä kestävästi / Full circle – sustainable textiles. CECI. [Cited 30 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mntRWgDgU2w&list=PLtbOrywM-BA__4z-2GHRE3UCF_eaUnTgV&index=1
Link 3. Puhdas Päijät-Häme luonnonsuojeluyhteisö. 2020. Facebook page. [Cited 28 Oct 2020]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/puhdaspaijathamehanke/?ref=page_internal
Link 4. Interreg Europe 2020b. Good practice: Modern environmental protection community for the cleaner environment. Policy Learning Platform. [Cited 29 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/good-practices/item/3804/modern-environmental-protection-community-for-the-cleaner-environment/
Link 5. Interreg Europe. 2020c. What is the Policy Learning Platform?. Policy Learning Platform. [Cited 29 Sep 2020]. Available at: https://www.interregeurope.eu/policylearning/what-is-policy-learning-platform/
Link 6. LAB University of Applied Sciences. 2020a. Telaketju 2 BF – Liiketoimintaa tekstiilien kiertotaloudesta. [Cited 1 Oct 2020]. Available at: https://lab.fi/fi/projekti/telaketju-2-bf-liiketoimintaa-tekstiilien-kiertotaloudesta
Link 7. LAB University of Applied Sciences. 2020b. Askel – Co-developing services for sustainable living. [Cited 1 Oct 2020]. Available at: https://lab.fi/en/project/askel
Link 8. Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto. 2020. National Collection of End-of-life Textiles in Finland [Cited 4 Oct 2020]. Available at: https://telaketju.turkuamk.fi/uploads/2020/08/0c08d295-national-collection-of-end-of-life-textiles-in-finland_lsjh.pdf
Pictures
Picture 1. Medkova, K. 2020. CECI and Askel representatives on the stage at the Environmental Village event 2020.
Picture 2. Medkova, K. 2020. The winners of the Lahti Environmental Awards 2020.
Picture 3. Medkova, K. 2020. The joint boot of the CECI, Telaketju and Askel projects at the Environmental Village event 2020.
