The City of Brussels has inaugurated two 'eco daycare centres', which focus on sustainability and waste reduction, in the Laeken district of Tivoli Green City, on Friday.
In Brussels' first eco crèches, everything is biodegradable, from diapers to biological powdered milk. The crèches are part of Tivoli Green City, a district in Laeken with 400 passive houses, ultra-low energy residences that require little energy for space heating or cooling.
On Friday, Brussels has inaugurated two daycares, each with room for 62 children. The furniture is sustainable, and the centres try not to produce waste. The children will use glass bottles instead of plastic ones, for example, to prevent plastic waste, and all the food will be biological and seasonal.
The project has cost €3 million, of which €1 million was provided by the City of Brussels.
The daycare centres are named for Régine Orfinger-Karlin, who was a WW2 resistance hero and the first female lawyer at the Bar Association, and Wangari Muta Maathai, Kenyan climate and political activist.
The two crèches are supposed to set the tone for all other ones in Brussels. Arnaud Pinxteren (Ecolo), Alderman for Young Children, wants to create a budget for this specific purpose. "Since half of August, all crèches are using biological powdered milk. That did not take up extra resources, and it is a concrete example of a 'good practice' that we can keep spreading," he said to Bruzz, stressing that sustainable efforts do not have to be expensive.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
