URBACT III. Greece.
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URBACT III. GREECE. Title of the project: "Biowaste-PLUS" Description of the project: The Municipality of Karditsa (Greece) is developing a URBACT III project. The management of the municipal solid waste constitutes one of the major challenges facing the European cities in the 21th century. The constant growth experienced in the second half of the 20th Century in Europe alongside the urbanization led in the rapid increase of the municipal solid waste. The management of the specific issue is complicated, as they are involved social, financial and environmental impacts. In European level, approximately the 40% of the total volume of the municipal solid waste is classified as bio-waste. According to the E.U. (directive 2008/98/EC) the bio-waste is defined as biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises and comparable waste from food processing plants. The remarkable point of the bio-waste is their ability for biological treatment. Through the biological or mechanical-biological treatment, they can be generated significant benefits for the environment and the local communities, such as production of biogas, reduction of the waste directed to polluting ways of management (land filling, incineration) and production of commercial value goods (compost). The European policies about the waste management (as it is expressed through the Directive 2008/98/EC and the “Green Paper”) focus on the management of bio-waste, in two directions: The composting (produced compost are used mainly as soil improver and fertilizer) and the energy recovery (produced biogas is considered as green “fuel”). On this basis, the Directive 2008/98/EC set quantitative goals, concerning the bio-waste management. In specific, the member-states have to reduce the bio-waste volume directed to landfillling, to the 35% of the total quantity produced at 1995, by 2020. In addition, by 2020, the 10% of total mass of the bio-waste has to be under separate collection. The production of “biogas”, through the biological treatment of bio-waste, contributes to one of the key-targets of the “EU 2020” policy, the 20% share of renewable energy in final energy consumption, by 2020. The European Environment Agency estimated that approximately the 7% of the total renewable energy can be generated by the bio-waste management. Today, very different policies apply to municipal bio-waste management, by the European cities. The rapid technology evolution has introduced a “slew” of options regarding the municipal bio-waste management. Particularly, they have been suggested integrated management systems, concerning the house bio-waste management (home compost, drainage), the bio-waste collection (special bins, automatic collection systems), the bio-waste transfer (use of GPS, modified garbage trucks) and the bio-waste biological treatment (composting, green energy generation, mechanical-biological treatment). The proposed network aims at the thorough research of the integrated municipal bio-waste management systems, the transfer of knowledge concerning the solutions applied by every city-partner and the possible ways for involving citizens. All of the above will incorporate in the Action Plan, regarding the municipal bio-waste management. Partner sought: Cities acquiring experience in the municipal bio-waste management and cities with low experience in the examined issue but a high prioritization in their operational plans.
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