Project Wasteless Karelias, a project financed by the Karelia CBC programme, is the Arctic Award 2022 winner.

The winner, Wasteless Karelias, is a project which focused on improving waste management in rural villages in North-Karelia (FI) and the Karelian Republic (RU). The challenge was the poor waste collection and sorting facilities in the Russian villages, and the long distances to the waste collection and sorting facilities in Finland.

The jury was impressed by how the project was designed on a people-to-people approach, and how it encouraged more than 3000 people to participate in its activities. The project established waste collection and sorting points, but also inspired people to waste prevention. Trash Art activities was one visible example. The project started in December 2018 and ended in August 2022.

WasteLess was one of three finalists. The two other projects Grude, financed by Interreg Nord, and FAIR, financed by  were good competitors: each project was leading the voting during different stages of the voting period.