Projeto Orgânico celebrates two-year anniversary expanding to 15 thousand families

26/04/2023

Launched exactly two years ago, the waste collection pioneer project of the Municipality of Porto, that bets on turning waste into compost in order to use it on the soil and enrich it, arrives now to more than 15 thousand families, with an estimated full coverage of the city by the end of this year.

This new expansion will cover the areas of Prelada, Francos, Carvalhido, Contumil, S. Roque, Campanhã. Similarly to what has happened in previous phases, Porto Ambiente will implement an awareness campaign for the residents, supplemented by a bin of seven litres for leftovers and an access card to the container as a way of depositing these residues, as well as a backpack and a vertical garden.

To ease access, the expansion of Projeto Orgânico is accompanied by a new feature that aims to guarantee a greater convenience in depositing these residues: the installation of a pedal in the equipment. This alteration, which is already visible in multiple places in the city, answers multiple suggestions from the residents, allowing them to throw away their leftovers. Right now, there are more than 520 bins, with an estimated expansion of 900.

Through this initiative, 30 thousand families of Porto have allowed a reduction of 2.140 tons of food residues sent to the compost bin, through their use as organic compost.

Combating waste and local treatment

Porto’s strategy to manage these types of residues is made possible, primarily, through the reduction and combat to food waste through initiatives such as “Dose certa”, or “Embrulha”, with the free provision of biodegradable packaging to restaurants, for clients that might take leftovers of their meals with them.

On the other hand, the municipality also provides solutions to local treatment and bio-residues, such as homemade and community compost that, simultaneously, allow a cost reduction and an environmental impact associated to the centralised treatment. It is important to mention that the two units installed in 2021 in housing clusters, already involve more than 150 families, supported by Lipor’s technicians in the composting process in order to obtain 100% biological organic compost, applied to gardens / houses.

The expansion of the selective collection of bio-residues is strategic to the promotion of a more circular city and to reach the goal of carbon neutrality until 2030, aligned with the challenges of the Pacto do Porto para o Clima, which is managed and coordinated by Porto Ambiente.