The European Litter Prevention Association

Public bodies

If you are a local or city authority or government body, you can join the Clean Europe Network, buy services related to litter prevention from some of our members or provide financial support in other ways (more information). Most importantly, you can make litter prevention a top policy priority in your area.

The Clean Europe Network aims to cooperate with all the key stakeholders in the fight against litter, including municipal and city authorities or regional and national governments. Given the societal nature of the problem, everyone can contribute something. Central or regional governments set policies and regulatory frameworks and provide financing which can have a profound impact on litter prevention work. Local authorities are generally responsible for cleansing of public areas and are at the forefront of dealing with the problem on a daily basis.

No matter how unique the different stakeholder situations seem to be, sharing experience almost always uncovers insights that are of use in tackling the litter challenge somewhere else. Most members of the Clean Europe Network work very closely with public bodies. Some of our members are even public initiatives, such as AVPU in France, or public-private partnerships such as Indevuilbak in Flanders, Belgium.

Organisation Pledge of Support

Litter appears in our urban and rural environments either because of deliberate, careless or accidental actions by citizens or because of a failure in the waste management infrastructure (e.g. public litter bins) and/or systems (e.g. household collection of municipal and packaging waste). Local or city authorities are responsible for cleansing activities that involve removal of litter. Removing litter costs a great deal of money, money that could otherwise be spent on activities that add more value to society...

Clearly local government has a key interest in reducing the amount of litter and it can do a great deal to help promote prevention. Why not start by engaging your organisation to play an even more pro-active part in keeping Europe free of litter in all its shapes and forms. Then, in other sections of this website, find out what you can do in concrete terms to fulfil your pledge.

I PLEDGE OUR ORGANISATION TO PLAY ITS PART IN KEEPING EUROPE CLEAN

Civil Society Dialogue

Public bodies have a special legitimacy and role to play in the promotion of a clean Europe. As representatives of the citizens, public bodies share the responsibility to address the issue of litter. By engaging in proactive dialogue with the rest of society, public bodies are especially well placed to come up with constructive solutions. By allowing citizens to decide themselves how to protect their environment, public bodies can experiment with local solutions and have a great potential wealth of experience to share with other stakeholders in the field of litter prevention.