CLEAR CITIES

Urban waste management faces an unprecedented challenge: meeting the ambitious targets outlined in the EU Waste Directives (2018/850-851), including the promotion of waste hierarchy (waste prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling, and other forms of recovery), separate collection of specific waste streams, and stricter recycling targets, among others; in a context marked by the increase in urban demography and waste generation per capita, derived from current consumption patterns.
Even though the waste management sector has successfully reduced GHG emissions in recent years, it is vital to make further efforts to prevent any potential regression resulting from the increasing demands placed on the sector.
CLEAR CITIES aims to improve waste management policies to establish more effective waste management models with reduced GHG emissions. To achieve this goal, CLEAR CITIES gather cities and regions from Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria with different levels of expertise in each stage that comprise waste management life cycle (1.generation; 2.collection; 3.transportation; 4.treatment and processing; 5.disposal) that will work together on identifying, exchanging and implementing good practices focused on:
Encouraging waste reduction and household and business recycling from the source.
Promoting emission reduction and operational efficiency in waste collection and transportation.
Implementing enhancements in waste separation and treatment systems to minimize landfill waste through increased reuse, recycling, and recovery operations.
Exploring the integration of emerging technologies throughout the entire process.
CLEAR CITIES will contribute to move the waste management sector from being part of the problem to becoming part of the solution, towards the goal of making the EU climate neutral by 2050 by making EU cities safer, more sustainable and resilient, preserving the quality of the environment and the health of their citizens