Could innovation help reach EU waste targets?

This question was driving the WINPOL final conference that took place on 25 May in Brussels and online. It tackled the role of innovation in waste management, especially to successfully transition to a circular economy in Europe.

The final conference was the occasion to discuss not only the successes achieved at project level 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 morning session echoed the Thematic Seminar organised by WINPOL on three central topics when it comes to innovation in waste management: collection and use of information to optimise waste management; innovative models for waste collection, prevention and reuse and recycling; innovative tariffication.

The WINPOL partners are themselves taking steps in the direction of a better use of smart systems and approaches in their waste management policies, as they explained during a second session while describing their Action Plans. These include several actions that partners have developed, inspired by the learnings of the interregional exchange at the beginning of the project, to concretely improve their performances regarding waste management and sustainability. Actions foreseen are as diverse as tackling marine litter, acquiring new equipment for the civic amenity sites, implementing a pay-as-you-throw scheme, developing mobile apps to improve services to citizens or installing underground waste containers… The Actions Plans are currently being implemented but some actions are already successful, such as the installation of an underground waste collection system in Maribor. 

Presentations from the event are already available on the event page.

Read a more detailed summary of the conference here.