Good practice:

The Ecopark, an inclusive recycling benchmark

The origin of this good practice is ASPROGRADES (Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities of Granada). Non-profit association whose mission is to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their families, including the incorporation of this social group into the labour market. From a tender for the management of waste from the city of Granada from the Granada City Council in 2005, the clean point was created whose mission is:
1. Environmental Management-Recycling Plant
2. Economic Growth- Varied opportunities for green employment and Revaluation of waste
3. Social action - training and social inclusion
Using the recycling plant as a starting point, a series of activities have been generated (Construction of furniture with recycled wood, green spaces and urban gardens, mobile waste collection...) that promote changes, both in the environmental education of specific groups and in general awareness of recycling as well as labour inclusion.
Based on the interrelationship between different agents (public administrations, citizens, research centres and companies), a circular and inclusive economic activity is developed, which gradually diversifies, improving its achievements and expanding the number of circular economy and sustainable work activities.
The main beneficiaries are the citizens, who enjoy the social advantages generated by sustainable recycling, and people with intellectual disabilities who manage to join working life.

Currently, the center has 11 workers with intellectual disabilities and a technical support team. In addition, within the facilities there is the Ecoparque Occupational Day Center that provides direct care, pre-employment training and personal adjustment to 38 people with intellectual disabilities.

This inclusive recycling model has been shown to be satisfactory in the years it has been working, it is evidence that recycling can be developed by people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, activities and services have been gradually increasing, requiring more and more products with higher added value and with a sustainable approach:
Specific cleaning campaigns
Creation of furniture with used wood
Mobile collection points
Environmental classroom
School of the circular economy...

The main challenges are:
Increase resources and knowledge to be able to make a better valorization of the products.
The existence of illegal waste collection and treatment activities in the vicinity of our facilities.

This is a project that shows how the interaction between different actors is beneficial for themselves but also for society in general. The need to address recycling exists in any territory and the approach shown here reveals that it can be carried out effectively with an inclusive approach. The commitment of the Granada City Council with the Asprogrades association and citizen participation makes this model an example to follow.
As specific elements, along with this triple helix approach, it is necessary to highlight the parallel actions to extend recycling to other activities such as the construction of furniture, repair of electronic devices and especially the awareness actions that allow citizens to be more aware and increase the recovery rate of materials.