Sharing Knowledge and Expertise through an Easily Accessible Platform

By project CITISYSTEM

Published on 29 February 2024

Spain

Cataluña

About this good practice

Good practices often intersect and tackle common issues. However, the lack of interaction between the executing parties makes some of the work redundant or more difficult. Plataforma residus municipals is a freely available online platform that allows stakeholders to capitalize on already ongoing and tested actions, and to disseminate their own knowledge. It also serves as a direct communication pathway between agents of change in the waste management area and the institutions responsible for legislating and enforcing policies.

The platform was developed and is owned by the Catalan Waste Agency in partnership with Ecoembes and Ecovidrio (both non-profit organizations) and the collaboration of the Federation of Municipalities of Catalonia, the Catalan Association of Municipalities, and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. Its main stakeholders and beneficiaries are municipalities, which are responsible for local waste collection and management, and non-profit organizations and companies that generate or manage waste, especially biowaste.

The platform collects updated information about relevant policies on waste management and offers monthly webinars and a monthly newsletter to subscribers, as well as other learning and sharing activities aimed at industry professionals. Nevertheless, any citizens interested in the topic can access the content of the platform, watch the recorded webinars, and subscribe to the newsletter.

Resources needed

The platform requires few resources to be set up, and a small number of people to maintain it. The content comes mainly from stakeholders, and workers from the organisations that set the platform up.

Evidence of success

The practice is closely followed and made the most of by stakeholders, but is also accessible to anyone interested: it not only gathers relevant information and provides a space of communication between agents of change in the waste management area, but the live webinars organized by the platform have a big turnout. The webinars remain uploaded to be rewatched at any time and, right now, they have an average of >600 views each despite being imparted only in Catalan.

Potential for learning or transfer

This practice was established by the Catalan Waste Agency, with the support of the Department of Climate Action, Food, and Rural Agenda, and the help of Ecoembes and Ecovidrio, which are NGOs that supervise the waste recycling put in the yellow and blue bins and the glass packaging waste, respectively.

The platform collects and promotes practices sanctioned by the government, which means stakeholders can apply any of them with the certainty it complies with current policies and is tested and working. Also, the webinars promote and allow for communication between the agencies responsible for those policies and the municipalities and stakeholders responsible for carrying them out, while establishing synergies between all actors in the area of waste management.

The platform can be replicated easily by other regions; it is not a practice that requires unique or expensive technology, so it is doable for everyone, and it can have a huge impact on the improvement of waste management.