In 2015, the European Commission established a unique comprehensive strategy, the Circular Economy Package, aiming to close the resource loop by introducing measures covering the whole life-cycle of products and materials – from production and consumption to management of waste and its re-use as secondary raw materials in the economy. The suggested measures also tackle climate change with energy savings and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and include the first-ever European Strategy for Plastics. The Commission has delivered more than 90% of the 54 planned actions. A circular economy is part of the modernization and transformation needed for the EU to become the world's first major economy to go climate neutral by 2050, as per the long-term strategy put forward by the Commission in November 2018. Furthermore, the European Commission is currently reflecting on which steps are now needed to make Europe ever more sustainable. Families are one of the biggest consumer groups in Europe and household waste accounts for 8.9% of all waste generated. This doesn't take into consideration the waste created by those who produce the products and services that families consume on a daily basis. In 2016, the total waste generated in the EU-28 by all economic activities and households amounted to 2 533 million tonnes; this was the highest amount recorded for the EU-28 during the period 2004-2016 with over 5 tonnes of waste generated by each EU citizen. Educating families is arguably one of the most beneficial things that could be done to reduce the overall environmental footprint of each individual. However, there is little value in educating some family members in the hope that they will impact the behavior of others. Educating families about the circular economy needs to happen in a whole-of-family approach and this can only be achieved through the design and implementation of a new comprehensive family learning programme that provides different learning materials and resources that are appropriate to different age groupings within each family context. The 6 project partners will develop a compendium of family learning resources for all different family members in appropriate media formats for each age group. They will also provide in-service training for adult and community educators who are the main multipliers in the project and induction training for parents to help them implement the family learning model proposed. All resources will be available online through an online interactive portal.
In many ways the ICE CAP project application pre-empted the rise of news stories regarding shrinking ice sheets, the protests of Climate Rebellion and the focus of events such as COP26 held in 2021. While there has always been an interest, the last few years have seen activism and action rise. The ICE CAP partners have used the project to explore the benefits of addressing the issues through an inter generational, family centred approach supported by the development of interactive resources that can be carried out individually but addressed collaboratively. However, education without an understanding of the impact of personal changes, would not have been a sufficient result. By introducing the concept of the Circular Economy through the interactive resources, participants have been encouraged to see how individual and family decisions and small changes in habits - made on subjects such as travel, food, holidays and Christmas - can lead to more sustainable behaviors that, in turn, ask for a response from market and service providers. Practically this has been seen recently in the rise of plant based food products as a response to the demand for better quality meat-free food.
The ICE-CAP Project has delivered age appropriate online activities introducing the circular economy and promoting individual responses to the challenges of climate change. The activities are available as twelve online Comics (6-10 year olds), twelve Digital Breakouts (11-15 year olds) and twelve WebQuests (16+) at www.ice-cap.eu. The activities are supported by teaching resources aimed at exploring the understanding of family learning for parents and developing the skills and competences of educators. The activities follow a calendar year with topics related as closely as possible to a relevant month. The themes cover Energy, Food, Fashion, Recycling, Gardening, Sustainable Transport, Travel (Holidays), Water, Back to School, Waste, Preservation and Christmas. The Comics introduce younger children to these concepts through the adventures of four new characters; Buzz, Honey, Vespa and Bumble. The Digital Breakouts follow the concept of Escape Rooms with participants able to move on once a set of clues or a task has been successfully undertaken. The WebQuests follow a similar pattern but with the addition of self directed learning opportunities to improve knowledge and understanding.