Community bio-waste turns into almost 300 kilograms of 100% natural compost

The first compound produced from the Community Composting Spaces installed in August in the Amial and Paranhos areas was already delivered to the participants, in an action that counted, this Thursday, with the presence of the vice-president of the Porto City Hall, who oversees the Environment and Climate Transition, Filipe Araújo. Once the cycle was closed, the bio-residues deposited by the population were transformed into 296 kilograms of 100% natural compound.

In Praça do Cávado, in Paranhos, five composting modules were installed. With the sensitization of 36 families to deposit bio-waste such as bread, tea bags and coffee grounds, meat or fish (raw or cooked), butter and cheese, leftovers of cooked food, shells and eggs (raw or cooked), vegetables, fruit with or without peel, it was possible to produce 144 kg of compost only from the material placed in the first composting module.

The material deposited in the ten modules installed next to the Parque Infantil do Amial, which served 88 participating families, resulted in 152 kilograms of organic substance, similar to the soil, rich in nutrients and that will enable the growth of plants and gardens.

On a weekly basis, specialized technicians monitored the waste deposited on the two module islands, with control and recording of technical parameters such as temperature or humidity.

This project results from the collaboration between the municipal company Porto Ambiente and LIPOR – Intermunicipal Waste Management Service of Greater Porto, with the support of Transformers and the Residents of the Amial Neighborhood Association.

The implementation of these two community composting sites comes from the work carried out under the CityLoops project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Programme (H2020).

The strategy being implemented in the city for the management of bio-waste is based on three fundamental pillars: reduction and reuse, local treatment and centralised treatment. Community composting emerges as a solution for local treatment of bio-waste, allowing to reduce costs and also reducing the associated environmental impacts.