Zero Waste Community

author: Sampling

In 2012 the NGO 'homo ecos' started an initiative 'No waste', which invites people in Latvia to consider the waste as a potential resource and to reflect on how to reduce the amount of household waste. In 2014 the organisation carries out a project 'Waste as a resource' and publishes guidelines on waste management as part of it. In this publication they draw attention to the fact that the household waste is up to 98% recyclable, and consists mostly of packaging (30-47%) and organic garden and food waste (17-42%). The organic waste can be composted, reducing the amount of waste that goes to a landfill, but also producing compost, which has a value of its own. (http://www.homoecos.lv/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/HomoEcos-BezAtkritumiem_web.pdf)

As a result of these activities grows the public awareness of the waste issue and in 2018, after public debates and inquiry on the demand for zero-waste shopping and lifestyle opportunities, the NGO 'Zero Waste Latvija' was founded (https://www.facebook.com/zerowastelatvija/). By the end of 2018 there are already 3 zero waste (no packaging) shops operating in Riga (Burka, Turza, Zeroveikals).

Although most of the actions carried out by the zero waste community are targeted at reducing waste in general, there are activities that are directly food (growing and consuming) related and address the food disabling city in various ways.

One way is by promoting waste sorting, in order to avoid the organic waste to end up in landfills. 

Community fridge Riga (https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/kulturtelpa/kanepes-kulturas-centra-atklats-latvija-pirmais-partikas-apmainas-ledusskapis.a342502/)

On the other hand the Zero Waste community is promoting composting at home.

They strive for a zero waste society. Due to their initiative the waste management and waste production in Latvia changed a lot. Smaller cities started to adapt their city to the philosophy of the Zero Waste Community and translated some of their goals to policy documents. The City of Sigulda starts from 2020 with a clear zero waste message reducing the city waste to … . This could be seen as one of the biggest successes of the community since their start. Also the Ministry of Agriculture started discussions with this group of activists. Nevertheless their isn't yet a good national waste policy we see some changes.