You are currently visiting the official website of the Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management (ACR+). ACR+ Secretariat in Brussels maintains this website to enhance public access to information about the network, its activities, projects and its work in general. We are keeping this information timely and accurate. If errors are to be found we kindly ask you to let us know and we will correct them. However, ACR+ accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on this website.
Links to third parties websites are made on the ACR+ website, however ACR+ accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever with regard to the information on these websites.
Copyright notice
This website is covered by international and Belgium legislation concerning copyright and intellectual property. All rights to reproduce are reserved, including the rights for downloadable documents, as well as iconographic and photographic representations.
Reuse is authorised, particularly in the pedagogical framework, as long as the following conditions are met:
gratuitous nature of distribution;
respect of the integrity of the reproduced documents: no modification or alteration of any kind;
clear and readable acknowledgement of the source, for example as follows: “This document was originally published on the ACR+ website: www.acrplus.org. All reproduction rights are reserved and strictly limited.” The address of the website must be mentioned in the references.
Reuse is not applicable to documents subject to intellectual property rights of third parties. For other uses, please contact us.
ACR+ reserves the right to modify the contents of this website at any time, without advance notice.
Personal Data Protection
ACR+ is committed to user privacy and is dedicated to safeguard and preserve your privacy when visiting our website or communicating electronically with us.
No personal information is collected without your knowledge. Although you can browse through most of this website without giving any information about yourself, in some cases, personal information is required in order to provide specific services. In that case, such information is treated according to the policy described in the Regulation above and information about the use of your data is provided in the privacy policy statements.
In this respect
for each specific service, the purposes and means of the processing of personal data is determined and conformity of the specific service with the privacy policy is ensured
a Data Protection Officer ensures that the provisions of the Regulation are applied and advises controllers on fulfilling their obligations
The ACR+ website provides links to third party websites. Since we do not control them, we encourage you to review their privacy policies. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for their policies.
Privacy policy statement
ACR+ is collecting personal data for communication, dissemination and statistical purposes, namely:
A distribution list for ACR+’s newsletters (the Update, the Newsline and the EU Digest) and specific announcements (invitation to events, publication of a report or a press release, etc.);
Registration lists for the events and webinars (public and private) organised by ACR+ and its members (including in the framework of its projects);
Information on your visit on our website, the pages you visited, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data.
The collected information will generally consist in:
First name and last name of the person
Organisation
Position within the organisation
Type of organisation
Email address
Additional necessary information (such as the participation in a specific part of an event)
Information provided to use when you communicate with us (e.g. by sending an email)
Information is collected either from the beneficiaries (in the case of newsletters and announcements), by email or on the ACR+ website by filling in online forms. They are collected exclusively to the extent necessary to fulfil a specific purpose. We may use the information to inform you on other activities we feel could be of interest to you.
By filling in forms on ACR+ website and clicking on "send" you agree to the collection and storage of the Personal Information requested under the conditions specified above.
The information will not be re-used for an incompatible purpose nor revealed to a third party. ACR+ will only disclose information to third parties if that is necessary for the fulfilment of the purpose(s) identified above (e.g. to the co-organisers of an event) and only to third parties located in the EU. In the framework of EU-funded projects, it is likely that the registration list or contact list will be requested for reporting purposes. To avoid sharing personal data, only the list of represented organisations will be shared, which enables to monitor the number and composition of the attendees.
ACR+ will not divulge your personal data for direct-marketing purposes.
In accordance with the Belgium law, you have a right of access, modification, correction and deletion of your personal data (article 12 of the Law on protection of personal data (Loi relative à la protection de la vie privée à l’égard des traitements de données à caractère personnel) from 8 December 1992).
To exercise this law, please contact us by post at: ACR+ – Association of Cities and Regions for sustainable Resource management Avenue d’Auderghem, 63 B-1040 Bruxelles BELGIUM
Subscribers to ACR+ distribution are given the possibility to unsubscribe, either by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or through a link being provided on every dissemination email (newsletter, specific announcements…). Unsubscribing will get the personal data erased from the contact list.
ACR+ only keeps the data for the time necessary to fulfil the purpose of collection or further processing.
The different lists (distribution and registration for events) will be stored in the website content management system whose access will be limited to ACR+ staff members as well as the sub-contractor who developed the website. An external software - such as Mailchimp - might be used to send emails and communications to ACR+ contacts. ACR+ website is designed to protect the information we collect online from unauthorised access. We safeguard your private information by implementing the appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedure necessary to protect your privacy. However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure, thus we cannot guarantee the security of data you send us electronically and the transmission of such data is therefore entirely at your own risks.
ACR+ members are provided with a password to access the Member Space of the website. They are responsible for keeping it confidential.
For queries or complaints please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call us dialing +32 2 234 65 00.
Messaging
It is possible to contact us by clicking on email addresses displayed on the ACR+ website, which activates your email software and invites you to send a message to a specific functional mailbox. In this case and when you email us, your personal data is collected only to the extent necessary to reply.
Messages sent over the internet may be intercepted. Do not reveal unnecessary or sensitive personal information. If you wish to share such information with us, please use regular post.
Cookie Policy
Cookies are small text files that can be used by web sites to make a user's experience more efficient. ACR+ website is using cookies. We use Google Analytics, a popular web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. Google Analytics uses cookies to help us to analyse how users use the site. It counts the number of visitors and tells us things about their behaviour overall – such as the typical length of stay on the site or the average number of pages a user views.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of our website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage.
Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google undertakes not to associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
If you want to delete any cookies that are already on your computer, please refer to the instructions for your file management software to locate the file or directory that stores cookies. You can access them through some types of browser.
More information about cookies, including how to block them or delete them, can be found at AboutCookies.org.
ACR+ Update
Three times a year ACR+ publishes the ACR+ Update which offers an overview of the network's activities, projects, events and announcements.
Would you like to also receive the ACR+ Update directly in your mailbox, together with other announcements from ACR+?
COLLECTORS
The COLLECTORS project – waste COLLECTiOn systems assessed and good pRacticeS identified – focused on good practices for the collection and sorting of three waste categories: packaging and paper waste, waste electrical and electronic materials (WEEE), and construction and demolition waste (CDW).
Project co-funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, 2017 - 2020.
Highlights
Transitioning to a waste-free economy requires cities and regions across Europe to properly collect, recycle and reuse waste. Thanks to the EU-funded COLLECTORS project, policymakers have access to the information they need to implement fully integrated waste collection systems, making life cleaner and greener for EU citizens. That is why the project has been nominated as a success story by the European Commission. This story is available here.
The main objective of the COLLECTORS project was to harmonise and disclose available information on different waste collection systems; to gain better insight into the overall performance of systems; and to support decision-makers in shifting to better-performing systems. To reach this goal, COLLECTORS created an inventory of waste collection practices, assessed the performance of twelve case studies, and established implementation guidelines and policy recommendations for decision-makers.
ACR+’ main tasks were centred on the involvement of external stakeholders in the project, mainly public authorities. To do so, a Regional Working Group was set up, bringing together local and regional authorities willing to share their experience and data, and to provide feedback on the project’s development. About 10 representatives of local and regional authorities met during the four project meetings that took place in Treviso, Malta, Warsaw, and Thessaloniki. These meetings were hosted by local public organisations and also included public conferences, enabling lively exchanges between project partners, participants of the regional working groups, and local experts. ACR+’ staff were involved in most of the project’s work package to provide information and data and ensure the project’s outcomes are relevant to public authorities’ interests.
Additionally, ACR+ was in charge of making the projects’ outcomes available to local waste authorities and policy makers, by drafting the COLLECTORS Guidelines and Policy Recommendations.
The first step of the project was the collection of information on 242 waste collection systems, following a common framework defined in collaboration with representatives from different European cities and regions across Europe during the project’s first Regional Working Group meeting. The collected data were brought together in three databases, focusing on the three waste fractions covered by the project. The data will be presented in an upcoming webplatform.
Find out more on the inventory of waste practices here.
Following the data collection, analyses were performed to identify relevant case studies, taking into consideration both specific local contexts (tourism activity, local GDP…) and the performances of the collection systems (capture rates…). The parameters to be taken into considerations for the selection were discussed and validated through a second Regional Working Group meeting, using the Multi-Criteria Decision Making approach.
The selected case studies were then further investigated in order to highlight their performances in terms of quality of sorted materials, environmental impact, economic balance, and public participation.
Find out more on the selection and analysis of case studies here.
The last step of the project is to make the results and outcomes available for decision-makers from local and regional authorities, producer responsibility organisations, and national and EU institutions. This takes the form of practical guidelines highlighting effective practices and instruments leading to high quality recycling, how to overcome local specific challenges, and what environmental and economic benefits can be obtained by improving the waste collection systems. It also presents guidance on how to assess its initial situation, to benchmark with other territories, and to set priorities. An update was proposed in December 2020, including a new part on the impact and measures taken to face the COVID 19 pandemic.
The COLLECTORS policy recommendations target EU institutions and national authorities, and aim to promote the shift of municipal waste management systems toward a circular economy approach. In particular, it wishes to underline the challenges faced by local players of municipal waste management to move toward the new targets set by the new European Waste Framework Directive and close the implementation gap.
The COLLECTORS policy recommendations were organised around six topics for which barriers or opportunities were identified over the course of the project. These recommendations reflect the findings of the researches done by the consortium, but also the exchanges done with the different external stakeholders involved during the different working groups.