INTHERWASTE | The pilot cities start their bilateral meetings

The series of thematic seminars, organised in the framework of the INTHERWASTE project, are coming to an end with the last one to take place between 13 and 14 June 2018 in Cordoba, Spain. As such, the 5 pilot cities are starting the further stage in their cooperation – the bilateral meetings.
 
The first one took place on 18 April 2018 in Ghent, Belgium. The meeting was held between ACR+ member SADECO and IVAGO, the intercommunal waste management company providing waste collection and treatment in the city of Ghent. This bilateral meeting came as a result of SADECO's initiative after Ghent has presented their solar powered compacting bins during last year’s meeting on urban aesthetics in Ibiza. SADECO's objective is now to try to apply this technology in Cordoba.
 
The meeting kicked off with exchanging companies' backgrounds, similarities and differences and understanding mutual businesses in general. IVAGO shared their achievements in selective collection over the years as well as presented aspects of the Pay-As-You-Throw principle which is applied to the entire municipality through identification cards, priced garbage bags, integrated chips in waste bins and more. In total, their civic amenity sites accept 40 different types of waste.
 
The underground containers are already in place across the city of Ghent, with 20 more being installed later this year. They are all solar powered and delay the need for collection to every 3-4 day instead of twice per one day, even in the most frequent spots in the city. The compactor can detect the level of waste in the bin and compact it with 740 kg of pressure. The bins are customisable and can have promotional and advertising space, WiFi hotpsots and much more.