Managing Waste Waste and sustainable consumption are important challenges for Lisbon. Most of the city’s waste is converted to energy by incineration, while only 2.5% goes to landfill. The city has the best recycling and waste management rates in Portugal, presenting 26.1% of materials for reuse and recycling, but it wants to do better. Circular Economy is now playing a key role in the municipality’s ambitions with initiatives underway to reduce consumption and increase reuse and upcycling. Single use plastic is banned in the city at public events and an ambitious holistic approach was developed towards biowaste reduction. A domestic and community composting project is performing very well, generating awareness by enabling citizens to experience waste treatment first-hand. The city is distributing free composter bins to citizens to produce and use compost in their own homes (2,308 so far); installing community composting stations for homes without outdoor spaces; and supporting citizens with free training. To complement the home composting scheme, the city is also now piloting a domestic biowaste collection, to add to the existing restaurant biowaste collection routes, bringing brown waste to an anaerobic digestion facility for conversion to biogas and compost. The collection service will be rolled-out across the city. Waste Collection in the Old Town The historic neighbourhoods of Lisbon have always presented challenges when it comes to waste collection. There are small buildings with no space for indoor bins; and door-to-door collections were not hygienic. In 2018 a new approach was implemented when the old system was replaced with fixed bins in public spaces. A network of underground high capacity recycling stations have been provided around historic neighbourhoods within a short walking distance of residents. So far, this has resulted in a significant improvement to street cleanliness, as well as happier residents! Part of the daily waste collection service downtown is provided by the local district using electric cargo-bikes, that make it easier to navigate the narrow streets.
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