Credit: EA

On Friday 24 June  2022, Luxembourg's Minister of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, Joëlle Welfring, unveiled the “Remix nature − but not like this”, the 2022 anti-littering awareness campaign, at Bâtiment IV in Esch-sur-Alzette.

The awareness campaign is the result of a collaboration between the Environment Agency and photographer Jessica Theis as part of Esch2022, European Capital of Culture programme.

With her project "1001 Tonnen" centered on the theme of littering, Ms Theis wanted to exhibit in large format the different forms of littering that she photographed across the country. Capturing real, everyday situations in Luxembourg, was the aim of this campaign. “If you look consciously, you see a lot of litter, some hidden, some not. I would like to open society's eyes to this problem and I hope to be able to contribute to creating a collective consciousness through my project”, said Ms Theis.

The scale of the problem in Luxembourg

Contrary to what one might think, the phenomenon of littering does not only occur in part of the population. “The phenomenon concerns society as a whole. It is therefore very important to raise even more awareness in order to prevent these irresponsible actions and to evolve towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society”, specified Minister Welfring.

  • Over 50% of acts of littering occur within five metres of a bin and 10% occur within one metre.
  • 103 kg of waste per km along national roads in 2015 (89 kg per km in 2008)
  • 216 kg of waste per km along the motorways in 2015 (309 kg per km in 2008), but the quantities vary greatly from one year to the next.
  • An estimated cost of €1.2 million per year needed for cleaning along national roads and motorways at the expense of the Luxembourg State (excluding cleaning by municipal services).
  • Municipal cleaning services generally collect 1.6 kg per inhabitant per year of litter.
  • 50% of metal packaging was beer and energydrink cans.

Further information about littering is available online via: www.emwelt.lu and about the awareness campaign via: www.1001tonnen.lu.