3rd URBAN-WASTE Meeting in Lisboa

On November 27^th and 28^th, the 3rd URBAN-WASTE project meeting took place in Lisbon (Portugal), focused on designing urban strategies for waste management in tourist cities.

The event was organized by the Municipal Government of the Portuguese capital, who also invited all the project’s partners from different parts of Europe. Bioazul, as a project partner, attended the meeting for the two days: the first one focused on the signature of the Charter of Commitment by different municipalities and the general meeting; whereas the second day consisted in a mutual learning event about good practices in waste management.

27^th November, 2018 – Charter of Commitment and General Meeting. This event took place in the City Hall of Lisbon, where a welcome ceremony was held by the Deputy Mayor Pedro Vaz and Manuel Severino (Dept. of Waste Management), who gave way to the signing of the Charter of Commitment by Florence, Copenhagen and Kavala municipalities. After this, the general meeting included a discussion and revision of all activities carried out until now per work package, as well as the future actions for the next six months. The day ended with an official dinner at the restaurant Casa do Alentejo.

28^th November, 2018 – Mutual learning event. The next day a mutual learning workshop was organized under the topic “Good practices in waste management as responsible for change in tourism” at the Neya Lisboa Hotel. This workshop is organized every three months and allows the 11 pilot cities of the URBAN-WASTE project to exchange their experiences and practices with each other. On this occasion, the event began with the intervention of Sofia Cordeiro (City Council of Lisbon), who presented the example of the city of Lisbon awarded as the European Green Capital 2020. After that, several initiatives and projects carried out in different cities were presented:

• Paris – The first Zero Waste street.
• Warsaw – A media campaign for protecting the Vistula River.
• Portugal – Greening cultural events.
• Tenerife – Sustainable customer intelligence: GF Hotels
• Lisbon- URBANWINS project of the University of Lisbon.

Once the presentations were completed, a guided tour at the hotel was organised to show the sustainable measures implemented in this place. Neya Lisboa Hotel was presented as a sustainable and environmentally friendly space offering an advanced waste separation system, using solar panels to generate energy, replacing the plastic gel and shampo amenities by rechargeable dispensers, using energy-efficient lights and installing devices in the bathroom faucets to save water. In addition, the buffet offers local and “zero kilometer” products promoting a high-quailty Portuguese cuisine.

To conclude the day, all attendees visited the Impact House, a hostel that seeks to have no environmental impact while minimizing the amount of waste generated.