The ECOTIC association implemented the project this year STEPS FOR URBAN MINING (https://www.ecotic.ro/stepsforurbanmining/) who proposed the transfer of Norwegian know-how in the operation of voluntary waste collection centers (CAV). The initiated initiative comes in the context in which the waste collection infrastructure will know an important development in the coming years, 585 centers with voluntary intake (CAV) to be built by 2026 through PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan).
Funded by EEA & Norway Grants, the project "Steps for Urban Mining", in the amount of EUR 130.000, facilitated the access of the employees of the sanitation companies contracted by the local public authorities to a series of activities aimed at ensuring the expertise necessary for the management of these new collection centers:
- Webminers on the topic Municipal waste management in Norway, where the most important aspects of the project were presented, with the active participation of Norwegian consultants
- Working visits to collection centers in Norway. the 31 representatives of local cleaners from Romania had the opportunity to see Norway's experience in waste management on site. The visits facilitated the clarification of the operation mode of these centers which are similar to the ones that will be built in Romania, of the CAV type, and at the same time gave the participants confidence that this integrated collection system can be successfully implemented in our country as well.
In order to promote good practices to as many local authorities as possible, as well as to other sanitation operators, ECOTIC has also developed a guide with recommendations for operating CAVs available online at www.ecotic.ro/stepsforurbanmining. The recommendations in the guide contain all aspects related to the operation of a collection center: staff, access, signage, communication with citizens, waste records, special areas needed in the center of the perimeter and other elements of interest. Launched at the end of November, the guide enjoyed the appreciation of the business environment, as well as the authorities.
"In this way, I congratulate the partners of this project in Norway, we have to learn from the good practices in municipal waste management in other countries, who have found the recipe that works and can share their expertise with us. Now we have the know-how, we also have substantial budgets, only through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan we have more than 1 billion euros for investments in WASTE MANAGEMENT, in voluntary contribution centers, in digitized ecological islands, in recycling factories and the list can go on," said Mircea Fechet, Minister of the Environment, Waters and Forests.
The STEPS FOR URBAN MINING project is a successful initiative that supports the development of waste collection infrastructure in Romania by facilitating the transfer of know-how. ECOTIC wants to support efforts that involve the development of solutions for the collection of recyclable waste, especially electrical waste, from the population.
"A population that has, on the one hand, the collection infrastructure at hand and is also informed, has every reason to contribute to the selective collection of all categories of waste and to the recovery of some materials after recycling in order to transition to the circular economy. We are glad that we, as an organization that annually conducts hundreds of information and collection campaigns, can rely on the local authorities to continue organizing these campaigns and work together for the correct information of the population," said Valentin Negoiță, the President ECOTIC
Aspects of the project's work and, implicitly, the visits made to the collection centers in Norway can be found here.
The EUR 130.000 STEPS FOR URBAN MINING project is developed by ECOTIC in partnership with InErgeo and funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through EEA & Norway Grants. The aim of the project is to facilitate the transfer of Norwegian know-how in the management of municipal waste and in the operation of municipal collection centers type CAV.
