Miniwaste

Miniwaste was a three-year European project which aimed at demonstrating that it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of bio-waste at local level.

The project was co-funded by the Life+ programme of the European Commission, 2010-2013.

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Miniwaste aimed to demonstrate, in accordance with the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, that it is possible to significantly reduce the amount of organic waste (food and green waste) at the source in a mastered and sustainable way, and to monitor actions for waste reduction in an efficient and helpful manner.

The project implied gathering and sharing of good practices and case studies implemented by European local and regional authorities to reduce bio-waste (in particular through composting methods), implementing demonstration actions at different scales in France, Portugal and the Czech Republic, in order to reduce bio-waste in these areas, as well as developing and implementing monitoring procedures through a computerised tool to assess the quality and the quantity of the compost produced.

The project aimed to emphasize the efficiency and sustainability of awareness actions by offering a better way of controling waste prevention using computerized tools and analysis software to understand people’s behaviours, simulate and interpret different scenarios, to analyse costs in detail and to define more accurately the real gains in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

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ACR+ had the responsibility of providing an inventory of good practices related to bio-waste prevention inside and outside the partnership. On this basis, the partners implemented demonstration actions to concretely reduce bio-waste in their area. The inventory report includes 10 fact sheets covering the following issues:

1. Home composting - Italy (Piemonte)
2. Home composting - UK (Kent)
3. Home composting - Portugal (LIPOR)
4. Home composting - France (Chambery)
5. Community composting - Flanders
6. Community composting - Switzerland (Zürich)
7. Farm proximity composting - Austria (Freistadt)
8. Fight against food waste - UK (WRAP)
9. Closed Loop gardening - Flanders
10. Reuse centers - Flanders

ACR+ was also in charge of information dissemination through a project newsletter, articles and regular mailing to partner’s contact and acted as webmaster for the Miniwaste website, in collaboration with the project leader. This website provided news and up-to-date information about the project and the partners, about which anyone interested can leave a comment: it is a collaborative process where every stakeholder can have his word.

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Miniwaste's project project partners were:

• ACR+
• City of Brno (CZ)
• Lipor*
• Irstea
• Rennes Métropole*

* ACR+ member

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Implementation of demonstrative projects in Rennes Metropole, Porto region and Brno

Rennes Metropole, Lipor and Brno have developed comprehensive strategies to reduce bio-waste at source on their territories. These strategies cover in particular the distribution of individual composter bins to citizens, the promotion and support of collective composting sites (in household buildings, schools, etc.), and the development and running of composting demonstration sites.

They also implemented a series of promotion and training activities for composting at home (individual and collective housing) and on-site (schools, cafeterias and restaurants, catering services, etc.). The three cities/region also supported networks of composting guides and assistants, who will be able to promote composting and train citizens on how to compost.

Other activities at pilot (test) or large scale included in particular indoor composting with witness households weighing their bio-waste and fight against food waste in restaurants and schools.

Development and implementation of waste prevention process and monitoring computerized tool

In order to provide cities and regions with good practices related to (bio)waste reduction, ACR+ carried out a compilation of ten good practices extensively described in terms of process, success factors and challenges.

In parallel, Irstea developed three kinds of monitoring procedures (protocols) on the basis of research performed in the field and in the lab: assessment of the effect of composting on waste quantity, assessment of composters used for community composting and assessment of compost quality. Regarding the assessment of the effect of composting on waste quantity, the assessment tools are surveys, waste characterization (using the French MODECOM procedure), waste weighing by households and (electronic) green waste quantification. The assessment of composters used for collective composting depends on several factors, such as the type of bio-waste (green or kitchen waste), the frequency of deposits, etc. Regarding the assessment of compost quality, the methods are sensorial analysis (survey filled in by composters) and physic-chemical analysis (in lab).

On the basis of the inventory of good practices and the protocols, a web tool was developed and tested in 2012 in order to help cities and regions to assess and monitor the efficiency of bio-waste prevention strategies implemented on their territory. Rennes Metropole was in charge of developing this web tool, which is structured in 3 modules:

• Decision-making module (before any action or strategy is implemented), helping to make a territorial diagnosis and consult appropriate preventive actions;
• Actions monitoring module, helping to implement and follow-up bio-waste prevention actions;
• Result consultation module, presenting the results of the actions under the format of general or specific graphs and charts.

Communication and dissemination activities on Miniwaste

A set of communication tools was elaborated (Miniwaste website, leaflet, newsletter, etc.) in order to support dissemination of Miniwaste findings and results.

The various partners have developed various communication tools (poster campaign, flyers, video interviews, local websites etc.) and awareness-raising actions (conferences, demonstrations during local events, etc.) that have proven to be quite successful. This awareness-raising material has been distributed to citizens when delivering compost bins and during the local events. Other activities included emailing, video, Facebook, etc.

In order to disseminate the Miniwaste results at European scale, ACR+ has acted as communication manager, in particular regarding general communication and dissemination activities, like updating the Miniwaste website, drafting and issuing the newsletter and presenting the project at several events like the Green Week.

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Miniwaste Final Conference in Rennes (FR), 20-21/11/2012

The Miniwaste final conference took place during the European Week for Waste Reduction. This one-and-a-half-day event held in French and English exhibited the results of the project and highlight efficient bio-waste prevention tools and strategies for cities and regions.

Plenary sessions gave bio-waste experts, public authorities and the European Commission the opportunity to get an overview of the Miniwaste partners’ bio-waste minimisation initatives and allowed them to discuss various bio-waste management strategies, from waste prevention solutions to centralised bio-waste management.

Workshops in French and English offered smaller groups in-depth training in four topics related to bio-waste prevention: composting, kitchen waste, garden waste, and using the protocols and monitoring tools developed as part of the Miniwaste project.

During the conference, participants also had the opportunity to test the computerised monitoring tool for bio-waste prevention activities.

The press release of the final conference is available here.

Brno Conference on bio-waste prevention, 13/09/2011

Taking place at the mid-term of the Miniwaste project, this event gave the opportunity to share experience on bio-waste prevention achievements in Europe, and especially in Brno, Rennes and Porto region. Experiments in different contexts were presented and analyzed for use by other initiatives or for advice. In particular, the Miniwaste partners shared their expertise on problems encountered, solutions and benefits that have been learned regarding the development of composting sites, training sessions for citizens and assistance to composting masters, etc.

Moreover, the event was the occasion to present the functionalities of the web tool aimed at helping local and regional authorities to implement bio-waste prevention actions, to be released at the end of the project.

The conference gave also the opportunity to share ideas and expertise on bio-waste prevention with other actors and projects in Europe. In particular, experts presented activities implemented in the framework of Pre-waste, Green Cook and the European Week for Waste Reduction.

The audience was in particular local and regional authorities, but other actors involved in the field of waste reduction were present as well.

This conference was organised by the City of Brno with the support of ACR+ and was held in Brno in Czech and English.

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General documents

• Miniwaste Guidance document
• Inventory of good practices on bio-waste prevention
• Numerical assessment of project results

Protocols

• Compost Quality Assesment
• Quantifying the amount of communally composted organic waste
• Quantifying the amount of organic waste composted in individual homes

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