Let’s Do It World Meeting 2014

Pristina, Kosovo sounded a little exotic to me and Let´s Do It World Congress I know is exotic every year. There are always many participants from all over the world, this year more than 40 countries was at place and we all loved to be in Kosovo, a great country with great people.

The Estonian team is as always so well prepared, competent and nice – I love them all! Meeting the Kosovo team was a new and very happy experience, they are so devoted and full of energy, that´s what keep this movement going – and we are going great, always forward with a lot of new ideas, always open for, listening, acting and attack for a better environment.

I will thank everybody involved in this year’s event, not forgetting anybody, everybody counts and once again millions thx to all of U.

I´m also very happy to see that so many of U are getting more and more involved in Zero Waste movement. As U all knew waste is one of the most fast growing businesses around the world and also one of the largest problem we have to face in future. I´m particularly happy that so many of U have understood that burning or bury is not the solution.

This is the only and sustainable definition of Zero Waste, you can always refer to www.zwia.org to get printed.

1. Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.
2. Zero Waste means designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them.
3. Implementing Zero Waste will eliminate all discharges to land, water or air that are a threat to planetary, human, animal or plant health.

As you also understand:

• Waste is proof that something is wrong in the society, it´s a true evidence. You can try burn it or bury it but still it´s an evidence of a society that’s not sustainable.

We had a great lecturing by Mr Joan Marc Simon about pollution, waste in our daily life and what we can do about it. A Zero Waste workshop was set up by Pal Martensson and Rodrigo Sabatini and it was a very good opportunity to connect people to Zero Waste and make them understand what we can do about it. We had a lot of interest and many new people got into new networks and as usual, Sabatini charmed everybody by his easy way to explain “What is waste?” Now we know: Don´t ever MIX! Report from other workshop was, great success and many good examples was shown, all participants was very satisfied with the topics.

Opening dinner was a blast, talking about food and drinks, puh puh, nightclub party was like a earthquake and the gala meeting was so good as good as a Golden Globe event. Fantastic catwalk by a fashion school from Pristine with models that had made great creations from waste. The audience couldn´t get enough, applauds never ended – congratulations!

A conference like this is a lot about networking, changing cards, FB and projects, every country made a little presentation, stories were told and you could feel the energy, power and determination – we gonna make it, we will clean up the world. You could certainly feel – you are never alone.

To meet all these people and get empowered is a gift of love, I´m seldom the youngest participant these days but I´m still around and I like to see and feel all the energy from all you young people, the force you are producing, how executive you can be and how easy you can make everything look.

I´m proud to be a part of all this and I will always try to be an good “wasteandcleanupexample”, because we are working for a better planet and for a better environment to those who will inherit our globe.

We all have a great year ahead, full of joy and happiness so Let´s Do It as good as we can.

Let´s be united in our struggle for a cleaner, smarter and Waste Free World.

It means wasting and attitudes that permit waste are unacceptable.

Waste means that there are product made that are wrong, we need a redesign of these products so they will fit in to a modern sustainable world.

Let´s Do It 2014 and 2015 in Latvia, looking forward to see you all again!

Pal Martensson