In the first week of June 2020 the Interreg SURFACE final conference »Re-Use: Key Element of a Circular Economy in Central Europe and beyond« took place online in form of two interactive online events! The number of 160 registered people from more than 20 European countries underlines the relevance of the topic of re-use and is proof that the theme of the conference was brought into practice.

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The last Learning Journey and Twinning Meeting were held online on June 3rd. Through an online platform, project partners and their guests met and had a virtual tour of the SRP in Mid-Tyrol managed by Waste Management Association Mid-Tyrol. 

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In the month of May SURFACE has promoted  an intense Facebook campaign with the goal of reaching general public to disseminate project achievements and enhance public awareness on Re-use.
The project Facebook page, already active since project start, has been populated during the whole month with posts, news, videos, project deliveries in order to reach the greatest number of recipients.

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After a 10-month construction period, a special facility opens its doors, not only from an architectural and structural point of view. Since Monday the 18^th of May 2020, the new recycling centre in Sonthofen is available to citizens.

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Within the framework of project SURFACE, a training workshop session has been organised on re-use and re-use centers related logistics by Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research on 5th May 2020. Due to the pandemic situation, the program was implemented online.

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Due to the Covid-19 emergency, the Learning Journey and Twinning Meeting were held online on April 22. Through an online platform, project partners and their guests met and had a virtual tour of the SRP in Vicenza managed by Cooperativa Sociale INSIEME

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The Bay Zoltán Research Institute is launching an awareness-raising campaign to promote reuse within the framework of the SURFACE project.

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In this period, when due to COVID19 restrictions we spent a lot of time at home with our children and our families, we wondered: “how to keep on sensitise people to reuse and to avoid wastefulness?

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In November 2019, the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region in Poland launched the first Smart Reuse Park under the name Repair Cafe Stajnia - Reuse Point.
Inhabitants of the region can visit the Reuse Point to repair damaged items with the help of specialists and leave there unnecessary things which will be repaired if necessary and sold. Thanks to that the unwanted items gain a second life.

This was the motto of the 7th Austrian Re-Use Conference on 30 January 2020 in Graz. Top-class presentations, animated discussions and artistic interpretations of repair provided a thoroughly inspiring day.

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Intensive discussions resulted from the first regional stakeholder meeting of the Interreg Europe project SUBTRACT where the Region of Styria is a partner among six other European partners. Nearly 20 participants accepted the invitation of the province of Styria to engage in an intensive exchange over the coming years. 
Also SURFACE project was represented.

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The annual European Reuse Conference of the European umbrella organisation RREUSE is one of the most important events for the exchange of experiences and getting to know interesting implementation projects in the reuse sector. In November 2019 140 participants from 17 countries met in Pamplona

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SURFACE project is informing that the registration is now open for the 3rd International Conference on the Role of Social & Solidarity Enterprises in the Circular Economy on 6 - 8 November in Berriozar, Spain. 

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Each EU citizen consumes a staggering 26 kg of textiles per year on average with the textile supply chain responsible for 15 % of primary raw material consumption of EU households. The ‘fast fashion’ phenomenon shapes the way we consume clothes and has soared per capita sales. Overconsumption and insufficient regulation on circularity has led to increased volumes of low quality textiles, unfit for re-use let alone recycling. 

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At the beginning of December, representatives from the partner countries of the EU's SURFACE project meet up in Kempten (Germany) to show to their twin partner guests how an already successful Smart ReUse park works. This was the first SURFACE twinning meeting where, among other things, guests could visit Kempten used goods department store and  have a tour to the Chance used goods department store in Lindau.

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On Friday 8 November 2019, at 10.00 am, the Municipalities of the province of Rimini met at the headquarters of the Partner PP04 PoR, showing their in the SURFACE project and to structure the feasibility study in accordance with their needs and requirements.

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In Lyon in France we find a small - but fine - ReUse project. Mineka (Matériaux de construction à [ré]utiliser) is the name of the project and was founded by female architects to give a second life to building elements from demolition houses and to bring surplus materials from construction sites back into the community.

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Budapest, the romantic capital of Hungary has hosted the fourth SURFACE general meeting.
Along with three busy days of project works, the meeting has allowed twinning partners the opportunity to experience and visit the new Smart ReUse park installation in Budapest.

Along with three days of inspiring discussion an interesting workshop on the "Twinning scheme" has been presented together with a Multistakeholder Forum on the "Activation tool". 

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In October 2019, a reuse centre opens in Miskolc, that will fulfil two purposes: the reduction of waste and the social support for those in need by prolonging the life of unwanted but still useful objects. Thus, these objects received and collected here – such as toys, books, furniture – are sold for a bargain price. 

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5 children, 41 women, 18 men gave birth, Saturday September 29th, to the Runway show of second hand and vintage clothes in Insieme Cooperative, Vicenza.
We talk about friends, clients, workers of the cooperative who have been available to be “model for one night”, being at the same time testimonials for second hand clothes, during an event – at its 14’ edition - that year by year is more and more awaited

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Circular economy is a flagship in the European Union: it appears in ecological and economical discussions and becomes more and more important in the research – development. One of the most important actors of the subject in Hungary is the Bay Zoltán Nonprofit Ltd.

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On Tuesday, September 17. 2019, CENTER PONOVNE UPORABE D.O.O., SO.P.,  organized an open discussion (FORUM) on the topic "SMART REUSE PARK", they sought improvements and answers to the question: 

"Are we as a society environmentally responsible enough to reduce waste and live more sustainably?"

Open discussion was held at the premises of the European Union House, Dunajska cesta 20, Ljubljana.

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Vicenza, the wonderful Renaissance Italian town, home of Andrea Palladio, has hosted the third SURFACE general meeting. Along with two fervent days of project talks and consultations, the meeting offered an opportunity to host a workshop on setting up a Smart Reuse Park. A conference open to general public and with the participation of press has taken place to launch the pilot action in charge to INSIEME Impresa Sociale, the local Italian SURFACE project partner

SURFACE PP BZN has participated to the V4 Waste Recycling XXI International Conference, an event that aims to strengthen the intersectoral partnerships in environmental research and waste recycling, delivering knowledge transfer in science and technology.
During the conference BZN relator has explained SURFACE to the audience

The Re-Use-Box is a very practical tool for the collection of reusable items in households. If one wanted to get rid of these, then these still usable objects were very often disposed of in the residual waste bin. The re-use box was developed as part of the CERREC project - a predecessor project of SURFACE - and first used in the city of Graz in April 2014. The re-use box is similar to a settlement carton and can be obtained free of charge at numerous distribution points and handed in filled at numerous collection points. 

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In addition to the ZAK ReUse collection box and the construction and development of second-hand department stores in the FUA, the "ZAK marketplace" is a new activity of ZAK Abfallwirtschaft GmbH to promote reuse and waste prevention and thus another component of the "Smart Reuse Park", which is being set up by the ZAK as part of the SURFACE project.

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Saturday, June 8th we inaugurated the first repair cafe in Vicenza, within the Smart Reuse Park of Cooperativa Sociale Insieme. The cooperative, after some experiments done in the past, has chosen to bring stably this project in the city of Vicenza, starting to repair bicycles with the citizens, sharing for free knowledges and experience of its trusted mechanics.

The space is equipped with a work station, a real workshop, perfectly inserted in the ethics of reuse, from the point of view of the repair "do it yourself".

It is possible to book via email and, for now, it is open every Saturday afternoon.

The Smart Reuse Park of Vicenza is a network of structures, services and relationships between social enterprises, public sector, private profit companies, associations, citizenship that cooperate for the reduction of waste and optimization of resources through Reuse and Preparation for Reuse, strongly linked to recycling, in a circular economy perspective.

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October is the month of falling leaves, but also a period when a number of kindergartens from cities affected by air pollution go to their autumn nurseries in nature

Ljubljana, the wonderful Slovenian capital, has hosted the second SURFACE general meeting.
Besides two earnest days of project meetings and consultations, the event has also hosted the ReWEEE workshop, organized by Project Partner RREUSE, with members of project ReWEEE funded by programme LIFE and dealing with the re-use of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe

The Austrian city of Graz has become a non-proclaimed European capital of repair following the introduction of a new funding programme encouraging households to repair rather than replace their electronic devices. Launched in 2017, the scheme gives citizens the opportunity to be reimbursed for up to 50 % of repair costs amounting to a maximum of 100 EUR per year.

Participants could try to build funny dolls from old towels, buttons and colored threads. Not only children had fun while cutting and sowing, but also many mums and some dads… at their first experience with needle and thread.

More than 20 polish representatives visited the city of Brno in Czech Republic on 24. 5. 2018. They came to see and learn how the city of Brno established their RE-USE programme. The visit happened thanks to the SURFACE project and network. 

Cooperative Insieme invited clients and reuse passionate to “a coffee with the architect”, an in-formative proposal about energetic and esthetic requalification of housing space. 

Insieme Cooperative hosted a hand workshop addressed to adult people about reuse starting from bike spare parts. It was purposely done one day before the local day of sensitization on sustainable mobility where in the whole city the use of the car is forbidden.

Insieme Cooperative proposed a hand workshop addressed to children on the construction of music instruments from wasted items and materials. 

During February and March all clients of Insieme Cooperative had the chance to send free some old blank postcards, recovered during the clearing out of apartments and basements. They could write them with their customized message.

Reusing furniture and small appliances and not throwing it away - this is what the partners of the EU project "Surface" (Smart Urban Reuse Flagship Alliances in Central Europe) have written for themselves. A 40-member delegation from nine European countries has now met for a two-day kick-off event in Kempten.

The pittoresque town of Kempten, Germany, has hosted the first SURFACE general meeting. During two intense days of work, project partners have met and discussed current project status and the actions and activities scheduled for the next months. 

When the ZAK got involved in the EU-funded project "Surface" in the summer, only one thing was clear: in the future, even more things that would otherwise land in the bulky waste container and thus in the refuse incinerator should have a second one Opportunity to be reused. After all, avoiding waste is an important task of the Kreislaufwirtschaftsgesetz. Meanwhile, the idea of "ReUse", as the waste management experts call it, is taking shape at the ZAK. For example, ZAK will buy a second hand goods store in Kempten. Lindau has a closer cooperation with the Thrift store Chance conceivable. 

The Circular Economy Package is part of the European strategy to move towards a more...

In our entire special purpose area we draw from a large pool of those who work with their institution, e.g. Bulk garbage exchanges, used goods stores, repair cafes, employment projects, garment exchanges or meaningful clearing concepts make a major contribution to waste prevention, reuse strategies and already successfully implement their ideas for better sustainability.  

Preventing waste and protecting resources, ZAK's Claudia Mayer sums up the ZAK's goal. ZAK's mission is to encourage the reuse of discarded furniture, appliances, toys, books and other items. The ZAK also wants to merge existing institutions and create a network. Even repair cafes and small craft shops that offer repairs, should be involved. 

ZAK Managing Director Karl-Heinz Lumer calls this repair finder: he can imagine that citizens will find the various offers bundled on a website in the future.