The third International Learning Event (ILE#3) of CAPonLITTER project took place on 15th October, organised online by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the project partner in Croatia.
Different stakeholders from Portugal, Spain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands have participated in the event, presenting their experiences and work related to the use of economic instruments to prevent littering and redudant waste generation.
The stakeholder invited by the project partner Environmental Protection Agency was LIPOR, which is an intermunicipal waste management service that, represented by Diana Nicolau, has brought a presentation on the LIPOR´s contribution to the theme of marine litter.
Every year LIPOR treats around 500,000 tons of municipal waste which is produced by about 1 million inhabitants from eight municipalities of the Great Porto Area. Diana Nicolau explained that LIPOR has developed an integrated management strategy based on four main components: Multimaterial Recovery, Organic Recovery and Energy Recovery, aimming the minimization of waste disposal.
Diana talked about some projects that have been developed by its organization, that works more and more on educational projects intending to change behaviours on environmental management practices and to raise awareness to fight against marine litter.
The project "HÁ RIO E MAR, HÁ LIXO PARA TRANSFORMAR” /Beyond River and Sea, Waste to Transform Can Be, (2020-2022), was one of the 6 winners among the 24 calls submitted to a cal under the Environment, Climate Change and Low Carbon Economy Program, by European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 - Small Grants Scheme #1 – for projects to prevent and raise awareness to reduce marine litter.
Beyond River and Sea…is a project developed in partnership with the Portuguese Youth Institute - IPDJ that intends to develop a set of initiatives and tools that intensively and continuously promote the Ocean Literacy and the Sea Protection and Preservation, integrated into i) education systems, ii) information to citizens, iii) training of technicians at administrative and business level, in view of adopting the best environmental management practices in this matter.
Once more, it is assumed that the strengthening of education and the awareness of populations are the determining factors for success in pursuing a “New Course”.
The BIN UP Project is another project developped in partnership with the Ernesto São Simão da Maia Company and the National Laboratory of Energy and Geology -LNEG. It is about a domestic recicle bin to be placed in height, made in recycled polypropylene, and whose design and development is based on ecodesign studies and analysis of the product's life cycle. The BIN UP Project won the "Design Award" category of the FAMAE - The World Largest Green Innovation Challenge contest, launched by Zero Waste France and the FAMAE Foundation.
Diana Nicolau also talked about other projects, like The GENERATION+ Project that is another educational project aimed at public and private schools, as well as social institutions or other associations and entities located in the LIPOR Municipalities that intend to change their environmental management practices.
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