EMULSA organised the CLEAR CITIES kick off in Gijon (Spain)

The Municipal Company for Urban Environmental Services of Gijón (EMULSA Medioambiente) organized on September 3 and 4, 2024 in Gijón the initial meeting of the European project “Clear Cities: Promotion of carbon-free urban waste management policies for sustainable, safe and resilient cities in Europe”, which has a budget of € 1,789,465, a development period between April 1, 2024 and June 30, 2028, and with partners from cities and regions of: Apeldorn City Council (Netherlands); Gothenburg City Council (Sweden); Langhe Monferrato and Roero/Piedmont Development Agency (Italy); Ljubljana Regional Development Agency (Slovenia); Ilfov/Bucharest Regional Development Agency (Romania); and Burgas City Council (Bulgaria). The two days of work took place in the conference room of the Centro de Cultura Antiguo Instituto and in the Laboral Ciudad de la Cultura painting room with the presence of representatives of the partners led by EMULSA.
Clear Cities aims to improve waste management policies to establish more effective management models with lower greenhouse gas emissions by exchanging experiences between partners at each stage of the waste management life cycle: generation; collection; transportation; treatment and processing; disposal. To do so, the partners led by EMULSA will work together to identify, exchange and implement good practices focused on: Promoting waste reduction and domestic and business recycling from the source; promoting emissions reduction and operational efficiency in waste collection and transportation; implementing improvements in waste separation and treatment systems to minimize landfill waste through greater reuse, recycling and recovery operations; and exploring the integration of emerging technologies throughout the entire process.
All this in the context of the unprecedented challenge facing urban waste management in Europe to meet the ambitious objectives outlined in the EU Waste Directives (2018/850-851), including the promotion of the waste hierarchy (waste prevention, preparation for reuse, recycling and other forms of recovery) or the separation and collection of specific waste streams and stricter recycling targets, in a context marked by increasing urban demographics and waste generation per capita, resulting from current consumption patterns. Although the waste management sector has successfully reduced GHG emissions in recent years, further efforts are vital to avoid any possible regression resulting from all these increasing demands placed on the sector. The President of EMULSA and Councillor for Environment and Sustainability of the Gijón/Xixón City Council, Rodrigo Pintueles, has stated that “it has been a great satisfaction and a huge excitement for us to have had Interreg approve this European project, which will allow us to work together with the other partners from different European countries to improve local waste management policies from the perspective of efficiency and the reduction of gas emissions in urban environments. Waste management from an environmental care perspective is one of the great challenges that public administrations face and I believe that Clear Cities will help us to make great progress in this area.”