Type1EU
I would like to introduce you to Weronika Burkot who have been living with diabetes since 1995. I met Weronika at some of the diabetes bloggers conferences over the years, she has amazing energy, passion and dedication in diabetes advocacy. I’ve been watching her latest EU project which is to reduce the waste in the diabetes products that we use.
Reduce Diabetes Waste Campaign!
My name is Weronika, I am 29 years old, and I live with type 1 diabetes for over 25 years. I come from Warsaw, Poland, but I currently live in Brussels, Belgium. I am an active diabetes advocate, content creator and artist. I am a member of diabetes networks, among others: IDF Young Leaders in Diabetes, IDF Blue Circle Voices, and T1International Digital Advocates. Every year I am involved in various advocacy activities, from participation in campaigns to attending diabetes conferences. I am passionate about creating my diabetes projects and drawing diabetes awareness art.
After a few years in diabetes advocacy, I noticed that there is no diabetes initiative focused on the European Union. I decided to start a group for diabetes advocates living with type 1 diabetes who come from the EU Member States. I wanted to create a space where we can brainstorm together and think about solutions for issues that concern the diabetes community! This is how the concept for Type1EU began to grow in my mind…
Presenting Type1EU at #DOC day at ATTD 2020
I decided to present my idea for Type1EU in February at #docday° (diabetes online community day) event during ATTD 2020 (Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes) and invite people to join the group. I was overwhelmed with the positive response! Now, Type1EU has over 40 members from 18 EU Member States! Together we want to make a change for people living with diabetes across the EU! We are going to start by conducting social media campaigns and researching certain diabetes-related problems. I hope we can move with our actions to a higher level, even political, in the future!
On June 1st we started our first social media campaign: Reduce Diabetes Technology Waste Campaign! The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness on the issue of too much waste left over from products such as sensors, infusion sets, etc. and lack of regulations and recycling education for the type 1 diabetes community. We are showing how much waste just one person with type 1 diabetes is unwillingly creating during a small amount of time. We want to bring attention to diabetes companies to start a conversation about this problem. In the end, we are the ones using their products and we do not want to have a negative influence on the environment. I believe that reducing unnecessary elements in diabetes products, conducting recycling programs, and sharing educational recycling materials would be desirable actions from their side.
As for ourselves, we need to pay more attention to how we dispose of diabetes technology waste. Most important thing is to get informed locally, e.g. talk to our diabetes association, our diabetologist, our nurse, our pharmacy. We should ask how and where we can dispose of medical waste (sharps cannot be put into recycling!). We should put plastic and paper (diabetes equipment packaging) elements in the right recycling bags/boxes in our household or our neighbourhood. Also, we should think twice before getting another "I have diabetes" rubber wristband or diabetes glucose diary - maybe there are 10 of these at our home and we never use them?
I am happy that so far, we have had an amazing response from the diabetes community from Europe and beyond! Diabetes technology waste is a big problem not limited to the EU and many people with type 1 diabetes from all around the world supported our campaign. We want to inspire, motivate, and educate as many people with diabetes as we can!
We have many ideas for the future campaigns and some interesting collaborations coming up. Besides social media campaigns we will be working on other types of projects. We will be sharing information on our website and social media channels about the upcoming activities. Stay tuned!
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Are you an active diabetes advocate from one of these countries? Join us!*
🇦🇹 Austria 🇧🇪 Belgium 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇨🇾 Cyprus 🇨🇿 Czechia 🇩🇰 Denmark 🇪🇪 Estonia 🇫🇮 Finland 🇫🇷 France 🇩🇪 Germany 🇬🇷 Greece 🇭🇺 Hungary 🇮🇪 Ireland 🇮🇹 Italy 🇱🇻 Latvia 🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 🇲🇹 Malta 🇳🇱 Netherlands 🇵🇱 Poland 🇵🇹 Portugal 🇷🇴 Romania 🇸🇰 Slovakia 🇸🇮 Slovenia 🇪🇸 Spain 🇸🇪 Sweden
*We accept new members from July 2020.