With the general mission of rethinking the grassroots sport practices of how events are conducted and of sparking new green policies in sport through the movement, Sport #WithoutWaste movement in Bulgaria spread massively across the country and found support in many organisations involved. While promoting #WithoutWaste movement in the country, BG Be Active focused to separate waste collection infrastructure to the organisers by providing educational and infrastructural. The involvement of the national waste hauler Ecopack Bulgaria ensured that the collected waste is properly disposed of. The activities in the country concentrated on three key pillars: policy-making, education and awareness.
In order to promote systematic change, as well as to encourage eco-friendly actions in sports, BG Be Active has partnered with various institutional organisations responsible for sport activities across the country. The partnerships concluded with different sport federations included installation of separate waste collection infrastructure, education campaign at the events, and recycling tips for the attendees and participants. Due to a successful partnership with the Bulgarian Handball Federation, Sport #WithoutWaste became part of the Handball IHF Emerging Nations Championship in Varna 2023. In July 2023 Sport #WithoutWaste joined the World Rowing U23 Championship, as the organizational committee of the competition placed the separate waste collection infrastructure and instructed volunteers to provide guidelines to the attendees. In August and September 2023, thanks to the partnerships with Bulgarian Gymnastics Federation and Bulgarian Volleyball Federation, 2023 European Championships in Acrobatic Gymnastics and EuroVolley 2023 motivated participants and attendees to celebrate sport festivals in a green way. In order to encourage #WithoutWaste celebrations at the football matches, BG Be Active engaged local football club FC Botev Plovdiv to place the separate waste infrastructure with informational tips at the key Plovdiv stadium – Hristo Botev Stadium.
One of the Sport #WithoutWast movement pillars in Bulgaria is to promote education on eco-friendly and sustainable skills for the youth by preparing educational materials on lessons combining movement and environmental sustainability. In order to effectively reach a diverse range of participants, BG Be Active started the activities at the beginning of the year with schools. Usually having a wide geographical reach at schools, the results exceeded the expectations.
On the occasion of World Recycling Day on March 18, more than 100 schools organised diverse activities devoted to recycling, littering prevention and movement and engaged students into plogging, clean-up, and active environmental games challenges. During the MOVE Week in May 2023 – a yearly festival of unconventional ways to be active, over 10 000 students from 70 locations joined the celebrations of exceptional creativity, involving outdoor sports trainings, plogging, clean games, relay races and nature walks. Throughout the European School Sport Day on September 29, the schools were challenged to commit to eco-friendly events by creating a specific green programme: sport activities, separate waste collection, educational classes and clean-up activities – over 800 schools with 150 000 students became part of the #WithoutWaste movement, while also engaging a range of Bulgarian celebrities to the cause (among whom are football players Hristo Stoichkov, Valery Bozhinov, athletes – Teresa Marinov, Zlatka Staneva, celebrities – Maria Oryshkova, Rumen Radev etc.).
In order to boost awareness-raising campaign on eco-friendly behavior, grassoorts sport organisers from all over the country were introduced to new sustainable practices at their events to conduct activities in a more sustainable way and to nudge participants on reducing the environmental imprint in various settings.
Due to a diverse landscape of the country (rivers, mountains etc.), many locations are hard-to-reach and require more efforts to be maintained with a lot of waste to be found. In order to promote sustainable tourism and littering-prevention, Water Club Plovdiv organised several kayak clean-up interventions to reach the remote areas and to reinvigorate them through a power of sport.
The focus of Sport #WithoutWaste at grassroots sport events in cities is to increase the capacity of the organisers to react properly to the volume of waste produced and to encourage participants to be responsible while using the plastic bottles. The movement spread geographically to support RotaRun Bulgaria Marathon in Plovdiv, mountainous biking tour Bike and Trail in Veliko Tarnovo, Ultra Marathon Kodzha Kaya, as well as Relay Tour in Varna.
Responding to the country-specific needs, the Sport #WithoutWaste movement in Bulgaria proliferated from the community level by engaging schools, local grassroots sport activists and civic organisations to the national level with sport federations, national sport celebrities and institutional partners. As the activities in Bulgaria continue, the circle interdependence of 3 pillars is evident to ensure sustainable impact: eco-friendly education creates awareness, while environmental awareness strengthens the need for strong green policies. In turn, green policies support eco-friendly education. This is the circle BG Be Active aim to enlarge.
Initiated by BG Be Active and backed by dedicated partner organizations from seven European countries, Sport #WithoutWaste is a movement designed to make sports events more eco-friendly while reinforcing the educational component within each nation’s context.
Don’t miss this opportunity to join the movement and create a lasting impact on your community! Reach out to us today to discover how you can contribute to the project, participate in our activities, or get answers to any questions you may have. Together, let’s create a future of sustainable sports events and inspire a greener tomorrow!
Find out more:
LinkedIn – BG Be Active
Email: beactive@bgbeactive.org
Sport #WithoutWaste is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
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