On 11 and 12 March, Fundació ENT members Karin Meisterl and Gerard Marina participated in the study tour of the Interreg Euro MED project CirBioWaste in Sardinia, one of the best practice regions for biowaste management in the Mediterranean.
Over two days, participants visited municipalities and infrastructure in the south of the island to gain first-hand knowledge of the keys to a remarkable transformation: Sardinia has gone from 15 % selective collection in the early 2000s to over 76 % today, placing it among the top three regions in Italy. One of the key factors behind this change has been a regional system of economic incentives that links municipal waste treatment tariffs to selective collection performance.
The program included visits to door-to-door collection systems in very diverse contexts: from coastal areas with high tourist pressure and marked seasonality, to consolidated urban centres and small rural municipalities that have had well-established source separation models for over 15 years. A regional composting plant was also visited, which processes around 20,000 tons of biowaste per year and serves 34 municipalities, providing an overview of waste treatment at a territorial scale.
This study tour was also an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences among the various project partners, discuss common challenges and identify transferable good practices across the territories of each partner. The meeting brought together representatives from several southern European countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Greece. Additionally, Fundació ENT invited Enric Forcada, president of the Door-to-Door association in Catalonia and mayor of the municipality of Artés.
The tour also allowed project participants to hold a General Meeting to discuss the state of the project and the next steps.
CirBioWaste is an Interreg Euro-MED project that promotes the circular management of biowaste in the Mediterranean, with the aim of improving collection and recovery policies and practices in the participating territories. Fundació ENT participates as a partner, contributing its expertise in circular economy, waste and environmental policies.
