Environment

Exchange of experiences brings together partners of the CityLoops project in Porto

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The municipal company Porto Ambiente hosts more than two dozen partners in the CityLoops project, who are undertaking a study visit to Porto to learn about the city’s best practices in terms of sustainability and circularity.

At the welcome session for participants, this Tuesday morning, at Porto Ambiente’s facilities, the vice-mayor of Porto, Filipe Araújo, shared some of the work done by the municipality since it was prepared, at the end of 2017, the first version of the Roadmap for the city of Porto circular in 2030.

The approach focused on two axes: “We want to promote sustainable production and consumption, and also create new solutions to transform waste into resources”, highlighted Filipe Araújo, noting the fact that the session took place in a building whose requalification followed care environmental level and efficiency, in an internationally recognized work with the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard, a certification tool in sustainable construction.

“The application to CityLoops was an opportunity for us to apply ideas and build a Porto circular”, congratulated the responsible for the Environment and Climate Transition department. “In order to promote the resilience of the food system, we have been implementing several measures”, added Filipe Araújo, mentioning projects like the Orgânico, recently extended to over 12 thousand families, which the municipality intends to extend practically the entire city by the end of 2023.

“More than 500 families use the urban gardens we have in the city, and we have local composting in each urban garden. We estimate that we produce 300 kilos of compost by urban garden per year”, highlighted the vice-mayor of Porto City Hall, also recalling that two community composting islands were installed (one by the Playground in Amial, and the other in Praça do Cávado, in Paranhos) to “involve the population in a common goal.”

The collected waste is sent for recovery, becoming an organic compound (Nutrimais) that works as a natural fertilizer for various purposes, especially organic farming. “The use of compost in green spaces allows us to close the circle”, said Filipe Araújo.

“We have been promoting access to fresh and healthy food, and in this context, we have just renovated the Mercado do Bolhão. There is a fair of organic farming products that takes place weekly in Parque da Cidade and we launched the Good Food Hubs project , which aims to encourage healthy, sustainable, and local food in Porto”, added the councilor.

Within the scope of fighting food waste, the Municipality of Porto develops projects like Embrulha or Dose Certa. “We have a network of solidarity restaurants for homeless people that serve around 560 meals per day”, stated Filipe Araújo, also recalling the launch of the FoodLoop contest, which encourages the development of ideas to prevent food waste and reduce organic waste.

“We are incredibly grateful for the support of CityLoops. It was the first step for many actions that we have been implementing. We are very pleased with the project”, concluded the vice-mayor of Porto City Hall.

The CityLoops project , led by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, financed under Horizonte 2020, is based on the collaboration between a set of partners for the implementation of actions aimed at promoting circularity models. Porto is part of the batch of seven European pilot cities of the CityLoops, in a participation that has the theme of organic waste, namely the prevention of its production and promotion of selective collection in the residential sector, in the tourism sector and in institutions of a social nature.

The CityLoops partners’ meeting takes place in Porto until Wednesday, November 9. More than 20 elements from the various partners (ICLEI, Seville, Apeldoorn, Mikkeli, Espoo, Vallès Occidental, Murcia, Prague, Torres Vedras, Ghent, among others), participate in a programme that includes activities in the Porto Ambiente auditorium, as well as trips to the selective collection of nearby organics or composting islands.