With only one last thematic seminar left, on “Waste minimisation in Heritage areas” in Cordoba on 13-14 June, the 5 INTHERWASTE pilot cities have already started their bilateral meetings this spring in order to study in situ some practices presented during the seminars.
The bilateral meeting took place on 18 April in Ghent, Belgium, between INTHERWASTE lead partner SADECO and IVAGO, the intercommunal waste management company providing waste collection and treatment in the city of Ghent. They were joined by ACR+, as the project partner responsible for communication and providing technical advisory and assistance. This meeting came as a result of SADECO's initiative after Ghent presented their solar powered compacting bins in 2017 in Ibiza, during the thematic seminar on urban aesthetics (find here this good practice).
SADECO's objective is now to try to apply this technology in Córdoba. As the INTHERWASTE project has foreseen these bilateral meetings to enable pilot cities to explore in depth and details certain practices and technologies, SADECO chose Ghent as their first destination. It is worth mentioning that Ghent is not a project partner nor a pilot city, but an external contributor to the project through their participation in the INTHERWASTE thematic seminars.
After a morning spent on exchanging companies' backgrounds, similarities and differences and understanding mutual activities in general the guests from Córdoba were taken on a tour around IVAGO's facilities, including the fleet, the waste to energy plant, the civic amenity site and the exhibit version of the underground containers which are deployed across the city.
IVAGO shared their achievements in selective collection over the years as well as presented aspects of the Pay-As-You-Throw principle which is applied to the entire municipality through identification cards, priced garbage bags, integrated chips in waste bins and more. Their civic amenity site accepts 40 different types of waste.
The underground containers which raised most of SADECO's interest are in place across the city, with 20 more to be installed later this year. They are all solar powered and delay the need for collection to every 3-4 days instead of twice per day, even in the busiest spots in the city. The compactor can detect the level of waste in the bin and compact it with 740 kg of pressure. The bins are customisable and can have promotional and advertising space, WiFi hotpsots and much more. Ghent has also shared their experience with the city administration which is in charge of Ghent's heritage. This authority is constantly involved in new projects and tenders, as long as they affect the city centre and many steps have been taken in order to secure new project's integration and implementation, such as the compacting bins.
Following this meeting, the SADECO delegation left Ghent for Amsterdam where they visited another example of compacting containers to help them implement the best system in Cordoba.
Find out more about the other bilateral meetings taking place within the INTHERWASTE project: www.interregeurope.eu/intherwaste/news/news-article/2921/bilateral-study-visits
