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sustainable built environment

: Published: 20 February 2017

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The CEYOU project – Circular Economy for Youth – aimed at promoting, engaging, connecting and empowering young people around the circular economy as a means to deal with the dangers to the environment and of climate change.

Project co-financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Union, 2019-2021

Highlights

CEYOU produced many interesting tools to encourage and facilitate the involvement of young people and youth associations in the framework of circular economy initiatives. After the publication of the guidelines to establish permanent forums of dialogue between local authorities and youth organisations on circular economy, the CEYOU partners released a toolkit to support young people and youth organisations in developing and implementing training programmes, activities and events in the field of Circular Economy. Finally, it’s available a guide on the wide range of Open Educational Resources (OERs)already available online but spread over different web pages and websites. The toolkit organizes these resources following the different phases of project realization – from inspiration, to ideation and implementation, and can be used both individually and in groups. Multiplier events will be organised in the upcoming months in Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Republic of North Macedonia, and Wales.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

The project aimed to empower them to take positive actions and initiatives within their local communities and to develop networks, as well as exchange practices at local, regional, national and European level.

At the same time, the CEYOU project aimed to promote the quality, innovation and recognition of youth work as a power for social and economic change within Europe through focusing on the concerns of young people and developing formal, nonformal and informal learning around those issues and concerns.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

The project outputs include the development of guidelines for the establishment of permanent fora for dialogue between youth organisations and local authorities to promote circular economy practices, the development and implementation of training programmes and activities for young people in the field of the circular economy, Open Educational Resources (OERs) for young people to support the occupational profile of a circular economy youth facilitator, and of a web application to guide young people in setting up initiatives around the circular economy.

ACR+ led the production of the first project output, namely the guidelines for the establishment of permanent fora for dialogue between youth organisations and local authorities to promote circular economy practices. The guidelines were developed through desk research on current literature by project partners and then tested through the organisation of local fora in Italy, Wales, UK, France, North Macedonia and Greece.

ACR+ also shared its expertise on circular economy with the partnership and work on the creation of OERs and the development of the web application.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

CEYOU's project leader was Pontydysgu Limited, Bridge to Learning - Educational Research (UK), and its project partners were:

ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (BE)
ACP, Active Citizens Partnership (GR)
UCSA*, Ufficio Commune Sostenibilità (IT)
Y-E-N, Youth Express Network (FR)
CID, Centre for Intercultural Dialogue Association (MK)

* ACR+ member

: Published: 13 January 2017

Discover ACR+ latest position papers!

2016 - Open letter regarding the discussion on the EP draft report on the Waste Package

2016 - ACR+ Position Paper on the Circular Economy Package 2.0

2015 - ACR+ Position Paper: Sustainable Materials Management - A Key Solution to Climate Change

2015 - ACR+ position paper on the Circular Economy Package

2015 - ACR+ answers to Circular Economy Consultation

2014 - ACR+ position on the Circular Economy Package

2014 - ACR+ 20 years - New vision

2013 - Green Paper on a European Strategy on Plastic Waste in the Environment: ACR+ Position

2013 - The review of the European Union’s key waste targets: ACR+ Position

2012

2012 - Good practices in collection and closed-loop glass recycling in Europe

2012 - European Week For Waste Reduction Guide of Good Practices

2012 - European Week for Waste Reduction Layman's Report

: Published: 18 August 2016

The URBANREC project – new approaches for the valorisation of URBAN bulky waste into high added value RECycled products – aimed to develop and implement an eco-innovative and integral bulky waste management system (enhancing prevention, improving logistics and allowing new waste treatments to obtain high added value recycled products) and demonstrate its effectiveness in different regions.

Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, 2016 - 2020.

Highlights

November 2019 marked the end of the H2020 URBANREC project and the release of its final results. In addition to the policy recommendations and the demonstrators presented during the project final conference, URBANREC delivered comprehensive guidelines on bulky waste management and knowledge transfer activities, thanks to its regional training sessions, and an online interactive tool and e-learning modules on bulky waste management

The final conference was followed by a working group workshop specifically targetting regional and local authorities where participants discussed the challenges of re-use and recycling of urban bulky waste. The main takeaways are summarised here.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

One of the challenging waste streams for municipal waste management is “bulky waste”, which is defined as “(mixed) waste from households and similar waste from companies that do not fit in the regular receptacle used for the collection of household wastes”. It includes furniture, mattresses, upholstery, garden and outdoor or other large fixtures and fittings, representing a European generation of 19 Mt/year.

Bulky waste is a challenging stream for various reasons. First, its bulky nature makes logistics complicated. Second, bulky waste encompasses very heterogeneous products and materials, which requires either an effective source separation system or a proper sorting technology. Many products managed as bulky waste are also composite products (e.g. a sofa composed of wood, textiles, and foam), that require a dismantlement process to allow the recovery of the various materials included. Other challenges are the lack of stringent regulation, and the lack of market outcomes due to, amongst others, the inexistence of cost-effective valorisation methods. This implies significant environmental impacts and a loss of resources that could be valorised. A comprehensive solution that allows a circular economy approach is required.

The URBANREC project aimed to improve the separation and disassembling of bulky waste – implementing advanced fragmentation techniques to obtain high-quality raw materials, promoting innovative valorisation routes for those considered more problematic (PUR foam, mixed hard plastics and mixed textiles), not recycled due to lack of eco-innovative cost-effective solutions.

GUIDELINES

GUIDELINES

The guidelines developed in the frame of the project are meant for public authorities and waste companies in charge of managing urban bulky waste. They present the main outputs of the URBANREC project in a comprehensive way and provide information for the implementation of URBANREC’s bulky waste management solutions. The guidelines provide an overview of bulky waste in Europe, present data and information collected during the project, and detail its different outcomes that can help improving bulky waste re-use and recycling rates.

ECO-INNOVATIVE AND INTEGRAL BULKY WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

ECO-INNOVATIVE AND INTEGRAL BULKY WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The waste treatments considered in the project include:

rebonding and chemical glycolysis for the PUR materials, to prepare renewable adhesives;
needle felt to obtain isolation panels from textiles;
fibre reinforced composites from textiles;
wood-plastic composites (WPC);
catalytic hydro-gasification with plasma for mixed hard plastics to obtain chemicals or fuel.

These treatments were optimised and implemented at industrial level thanks to the collaboration of the URBANREC partners which include top EU level research institutes, and companies interested in obtaining novel eco-friendly products from waste, under a circular economy approach.

POLICY & LEGAL RECOMMENDATIONS

POLICY & LEGAL RECOMMENDATIONS

The project consortium also produced a list of policy recommendation covering six important aspect of bulky waste management:

General framework:

-Harmonised definition;

-Promoting preserving collection.

Quantitative targets:

-Separate target for preparing for reuse;

-Minimum recycled content.

Designing sustainable bulky items:

-Extending Ecodesign Directive;

-Addressing hazardous substances.

Quality standards, certification, information and warranty:

-Extended warranty for products;

-Mandatory information;

-Standards and certification;

-Extending EU Ecolabel.

Collection and handling of bulky waste by reuse professionals:

-Access to reusable items;

-Exemption to environmental permitting.

Public procurement and other economic instruments:

-Support to GPP criteria for bulky items;

-Social clauses in tenders;

-Using VAT.

Full policy brief available here.

ACTIVITIES

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

Four different geographical areas – Northern, Mediterranean, Eastern and South-Eastern – are represented by the 21 organisations which are partners to the project. The partners also represent the whole bulky waste value chain and include research organisations, SMEs, larger industrial organisations and local authorities.

URBANREC’s project coordinator is AIMPLAS (Asociación de investigación de materiales plásticos y conexas, ES) and its project partners are:

FHG, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Forderung Der Angewandten Forschung EV (DE)
CENTEXBEL, Centre Scientifique & Technique de l’industrie textile Belge (BE)
IOS – PIB, Instytut Ochrony Srodowiska – Panstwowy Instytut Badawczy (PL)
IYTE, Izmir Institute of Technology (TR)
ACR+, Association of Cities and Regions for Sustainable Resource Management (BE)
IZNAB Sp. z o.o., Iznab Spolka Z Ograniczona Odpowiedzialnoscia (PL)
ECOFRAG – ECORETORNO, Ecofrag-Mentation Europe S.L.(ES)
BPP, Blueplasma Power S.L. (ES)
RAMPF, RAMPF Ecosystems GmbH & Co. KG (DE)
RESCOLL Technology Centre of Materials, RESCOLL (FR) Eurospuma, Eurospuma - Sociedade Industrial de Espumas Sintéticas SA (PT)
DELAX, Colchones Delax SL (ES)
PROCOTEX, Procotex Corporation SA (BE)
Vanheede Environment Group (BE)
IMOG, Intergemeentelijke Maatschappij voor Openbare Gezondheid (BE)
CVI, Consorcio Valencia Interior (ES)
OVAM*, Oprnbare Vlaamse Afvalstoffenmaatschappij (BE)
Diputación Provincial de Valencia (ES)
URZAD - City of Warsaw*, Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa (PL)
Bornova Municipality (TR)

*ACR+ members

More information: https://urbanrec-project.eu

: Published: 18 August 2016

The INTHERWASTE project – Interregional Environmental Integration of Waste Management in European Heritage Cities –, aimed to foster the exchange of experience and polices for efficient and sustainable waste management in European Heritage Cities.

Project funded under the European Regional Development Fund.

Highlights

The final conference of the Interreg Europe INTHERWASTE project took place online on 4 February 2021, with a high number of stakeholders attending. The first panel featured the project’s five pilot cities, and the second brought in a set of well-established good practices. The conclusions showed the importance of revisiting and modifying waste management strategies and operational practices in order to facilitate circular economy loops having tangible interconnections with daily life. ACR+ supported the alignment of long-term solutions to local reality and needs.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

The INTHERWASTE project aimed for European Heritage Cities to exchange experiences and policies for efficient and sustainable waste management in urban contexts in order to contribute, through mutual capacity building, policy learning and drafting of action plans - to the environmental performance management of waste in EU cities.

The project:

contributed – through mutual capacity-building, policy learning and the drafting of action plans – to the environmental performance of waste management in EU cities;
improved the capacity of the staff of involved authorities to design and implement policies and measures in the waste field and governance in the same field.

HERITAGE CITIES

HERITAGE CITIES

The project focused on waste management in Heritage Cities, as there are many in our continent.The solutions and policies proved feasible in INTHERWASTE were transferable to most heritage but also non-heritage cities in EU and the solutions and policies proved feasible in Heritage Cities were feasible in less demanding urban environments. In addition, the visibility of Heritage Cities worldwide helped duplicate the solutions and policies identified in the project in many other cities.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

As advisory partner ACR+ was in charge of providing expertise to the partnership in the different stages of the project, helping to consolidate the knowledge base.

ACR+ also organised a Capacity Building event to train partner cities representatives in the use of different waste monitoring tools for their management at city level (Pre-waste, Miniwaste, R4R, the EWWR Food Calculator and others).

In addition, ACR+ was coordinating the communication activities of the project, ensuring the visibility of the project and programme and the dissemination of good practices and policies. This included the launch of the INTHERWASTE twitter account: @intherwaste; the maintenance of the INTHERWASTE website; the creation and maintenance of a newsletter as well as other communication and information activities.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

: Published: 18 August 2016

The WINPOL project – Waste Management Intelligent Systems and Policies – aimed to improve regional and local waste management processes by promoting intelligent equipment and innovative planning derived from it in order to minimise waste generation and increase the efficiency of waste management processes.

Project funded under the European Regional Development Fund. 2018 - 2022

Highlights

The WINPOL final conference tackled the role of innovation in waste management, especially to successfully transition to a circular economy in Europe. It was the occasion to discuss not only the successes achieved at project level, now that the project is closing, but also the progresses made in the use of intelligent systems and policies in waste management. It included two main sessions combining project partners telling their experience and invited speakers – from Amsterdam, Bergen, Catalonia, and the Life REthinkWASTE project – presenting their innovative practices.

THE PROJECT

THE PROJECT

The WINPOL project aimed at improving policies for waste management so that they increasingly foster and promote the use of intelligent equipment and planning derived of it, significantly contributing to waste minimisation in European cities and regions, through improved management procedures and awareness campaigns.

Intelligent equipment and systems for waste disposal, collection and management bring about the opportunity to improve policies because the detailed information produced makes it possible to develop individual and accurate taxation policies in line with the “who pollutes pays” principles. They also lead to improved resource efficiency in the collection routes, to highly targeted campaigns that address critical groups of waste producers who have been identified thanks to data collected and, in general, to better strategic waste management planning at urban level as well as to cost optimisation in the mid-term, even if initial investments have to be faced.

However, the degree of introduction of innovative equipment varies significantly from one environment to another. The WINPOL partnership gathered together cities and regions with proven experience in intelligent equipment and related waste management policies, and cities and regions planning to introduce them in the mid-term.

ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITIES

As advisory partner ACR+ was in charge of providing expertise to the partnership in the different stages, helping to consolidate the knowledge base of the project. A Capacity-Building event was organised by ACR+ to present tools already existing and developed by other projects (Pre-waste, Miniwaste, R4R, among others) and train partner cities representatives in using them.

In addition, ACR+ provided an inventory of good practices, capitalising on the experiences from its members throughout Europe, the various projects ACR+ is involved in and other sources. It also took experts in the different topics to the thematic seminars. Last but not least, ACR+ coordinated the communications activities of the project, aiming at ensuring consistent and efficient communication, ensuring the visibility of project and programme.

PARTNERS INVOLVED

PARTNERS INVOLVED

WINPOL's project coordinator was EMULSA* (the Municipal Company of Urban Environment Services of Gijón, ES) and the other partners involved were:

City of Antwerp (BE)
ERA, Environment and Resources Authority (MT)
Region of Crete (GR)
Municipality of Heraklion (GR)
SNAGA, company for waste management and other utility services (SI)
Drobeta Turnu Severin City Hall (RO)
Mehedinti County Council (RO)

ACR+ is acting as advisory partner on the project and will be providing expertise to the partnership, as well as coordinating the communication activities of the project.

*ACR+ member

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ACR+

News from our Members

CEYOU

Highlights

THE PROJECT

ACTIVITIES

PARTNERS INVOLVED

Position papers

2012

2011

2006

2004

URBANREC

Highlights

THE PROJECT

GUIDELINES

ECO-INNOVATIVE AND INTEGRAL BULKY WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

POLICY & LEGAL RECOMMENDATIONS

ACTIVITIES

PARTNERS INVOLVED

INTHERWASTE

Highlights

THE PROJECT

HERITAGE CITIES

ACTIVITIES

PARTNERS INVOLVED

WINPOL

Highlights

THE PROJECT

ACTIVITIES

PARTNERS INVOLVED