Together for municipal waste from the Mediterranean region

More than 40 key stakeholders from most countries of the region, inclusive of policy makers, local authorities, the private sector and civil society organisations, participated in the workshop “Decentralized management of municipal organic waste in the Mediterranean” that be held in Cagliari, Sardinia, from 24 to 26 october last.  

The workshop was organised by WES, the “Water and Environment Support in the ENI Neighbourhood South Region” with ENI CBCMED Med4Waste. 

In this occasion the participants visited the Arborea municipal solid waste sorting and treatment plant, a Municipal Collection Center in Cagliari that complements the city’s door-to-door scheme in place and aims to increase separate waste collection and promote environmental awareness.  
They also saw the Esposito Group's Ecocenter that processes beach waste (particularly posidonia), recovers every single grain of sand and returns it to the beach of origin, while recovering the organic fraction present and making it suitable for re-use in agriculture or green building. The trainees were able to directly interact with the local policymakers, entrepreneurs and community members learn valuable insights and exchange experiences. 

During the workshop sessions, the participants were updated on the EU and Mediterranean policy context on waste management and circular economy, the Med4Waste results that are based on five ENI CBCMED projects, the Sardinian experience up close and numerous Mediterranean good practices and case studies for replication on decentralised organic waste management. 

The choice of Sardinia is not random: it is in fact an important tourist destination with typical Mediterranean food habits and weather conditions, very similar to those of the MENA countries. Furthermore, since 2004, Sardinia has become from one of the lowest ranking, the best performing island in Europe with its separate collection rate reaching 60% and waste generation per capita decreasing consistently (moving from 520 kg to 443 kg and residual waste moving from 500 kg to 176 kg per inhabitant).  

About a month before the event in Sardinia a WES Peer-to-Peer process was launched, that will run till the spring of 2024, to further support experience exchange and knowledge transfer among WES PCs on initiatives, policy instruments, etc. in terms of managing organic waste in decentralized settings and catalysing the region’s transition to circularity.