Guimarães leading the way to a circular economy
The Municipality of Guimarães, a member of ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, the Covenant of Mayors Europe, Adapt-local the Portuguese municipality network for adaptation, and engaged in the EU Mission NetZero Cities, the Green City Accord, and one of the CCRI pilot cities, is implementing a series of strategies and adaptation actions to manage waste by promoting the RRRCICLO - Circular Economy in Guimarães initiative, developed by the Municipality of Guimaraes and Laboratório da Paisagem and Vitrus Ambiente.
Through RRRCICLO, Guimarães is reducing, recycling and reusing organic waste. The first aspect concerns the management of organic waste in the entire municipality area through the Organic Waste Management Plan for 2030. It foresees the implementation of a network to separately collect organic waste and implement home and community composting through the distribution of composters to schools and households along with a composting guide and a series of training.
Composting is a natural process of recycling organic materials where microorganisms transform biodegradable waste into a natural fertilizer. The key to healthy plants and vegetables is healthy soil. All plants benefit from compost, which is why this project is so important.
The first phase started in December 2021 in the city center with door-to-door collection of separate waste including the possibility to compost organic waste at home by requesting a free compost bin from the municipality. In 2022, the project was extended to 34% of the population, and the implementation will continue until 2028 for a larger coverage. Currently 600 compost bins have been distributed to both household and communal use. Since January 2022, around 957 tonnes of organic waste and 1700 tonnes of green waste have been collected. RRRCICLO includes a strong awareness campaign for the and schools through the environmental program PEGADAS.
“Guimarães is committed to the efficient use of resources and waste management and promoting a circular economy. To reach this goal, we need to encourage citizens’ engagement and increase participatory democracy. RRRCICLO is a great example of how we can integrate technical and participatory approaches, joining a multidisciplinary team and different local stakeholders with a strong awareness campaign able to change behaviours” – Mayor Domingos Bragança.
The RRRCICLO framework also includes a pilot project on the reuse of water from swimming pool tanks, currently reused by municipal services in cleaning public streets. This project also integrates as a partner the water inter-municipal company Vimágua. In addition, to reduce the use of plastic, 75,000 compostable bags are distributed annually to traders at the Guimarães municipal market.
The municipality also focused on the collection of medical masks - used during the Covid-19 pandemic - and also textile waste, and their subsequent valorization. This project integrates several partners, namely the company TO BE-GREEN and the CVR - Center for the Recovery of Waste that, from the masks collected, create new products.
The reintegration of products in the market and the reduction of waste contributes to a truly sustainable economic model.
CDP-ICLEI Track 2022: https://data.cdp.net/
RRRCICLO: https://rrrciclo.pt/
Laboratório da Paisagem: https://www.labpaisagem.pt
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability: https://iclei.org/
EU Mission NetZero Cities: https://netzerocities.eu/mission-cities/
Green City Accord: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/urban-environment/green-city-accord_en
Circular Cities and Regions Initiative: https://circular-cities-and-regions.eu/about
Covenant of Mayors Europe: https://www.globalcovenantofmayors.org/region/european-union-and-western-europe/
Adapt-local: https://www.adapt-local.pt
TO BE-GREEN: https://to-be-green.com/
CVR - Centro para a Valorização de Resíduos: Https://www.cvresiduos.pt/
Vitrus Ambiente: https://www.vitrusambiente.pt/
VIMAGUA: https://www.vimagua.pt/