Waste and Circular Economy

The 1st and 2nd phase of the “Agora Sim. Nada se Perde!” project is being developed during the next 3 years, and will cover 4 residential areas, with a total of 4 850 households and 10 310 inhabitants. At present, the pilot project operates in two areas of the 1st phase, involving 1583 households and around 3500 inhabitants, with 1205 households having already joined. It is planned to have the entire municipality covered by this selective collection by the end of 2025. Specific kit will be delivered for the correct separation of food waste from home. It is expected a biowaste recovery rate corresponding to a fraction of 25% of total domestic waste in the first year, with a performance improvement to 30% in the second year, and 35% in the third year, which is, nowadays, almost the entire fraction of biowaste included in total urban waste.

AGERE is developing a project for the selective collection of green waste in cemeteries and large producers, such as companies dedicated to gardening. In the largest cemeteries will be placed 11 bilateral containers, and 113 traditional plastic containers in smaller cemeteries, where less waste is expected to be produced. Also, will be implemented 9 containers in predefined areas characterized by the existence of single-family households with large agriculture or forest areas, of high heritage value and where gardening service companies predominates. During the project is estimated an annual collection of 1 268 tons of green waste.

Below is a non-exhaustive list of good practices from some local companies:

• CASAIS GROUP, a civil construction company based in Braga, is a pioneer and a reference in sustainable construction in Portugal. It has led the sustainable transition in the construction sector through an innovative system, an industrialized solution that allows simple assembly and disassembly, with prefabricated structures and facades. Compared to the traditional construction method, this hybrid model reduces the carbon footprint by 60%, reduces waste production by 60%, reduces local noise pollution by 50%, and even increases energy efficiency by 10%.
  
  
• DST GROUP, construction company, based in Braga, has developed a range of structural concrete and ecological concrete made from 60% construction and demolition waste and by-products from the steel industry. The objective is to drastically reduce the use of natural resources and energy-intensive products in future buildings. The industrial technology for creating this range of structural concrete and bituminous concrete was developed within the scope of CirMat (CIRcular aggregates for sustainable road and building MATerials) project.
  
  
• AGERE, public company responsible for managing the water and wastewater systems in the municipality, has recovered 32,8 tonnes of waste from wastewater treatment sludge in compost since 2019, and reused 269 810 m3 of treated wastewater for less demanding purposes.
  
  
• AMBIBÉRICA, company based in Braga, has contributed to the recycling of more than 4 million tonnes of fishing net waste since 2014, which is transformed into new products, such as chains, carpets, clothing and technical fabrics.
  
  
• SOURCETEXTILE, textile company based in Braga, started a “2nd Round” project that allows customers to recycle cutting waste and end-of-life pieces and transform them into new knitwear.
  
  
• DSTELECOM in partnership with SERNIS – two companies from Braga – has just announced the launch of the SR-ECO-BALI, an environmentally revolutionary traffic marker at a global level, built from waste of fiber optic cables. Last year alone, the DSTELECOM company generated 39 tons of waste fiber optic cables which, in this way, could be reused as raw material for SR-ECO-BALI and reduce the amount of waste by around 42%.

The “re.store” is a brand whose launch in November 2019 was supported by the Braga City Council as part of its sustainability policy during European Waste Prevention Week. The textile brand “re.store” (www.restore.com.pt) develops mainly in the territory nearby Braga, standing out for its policy of sustainability and social inclusion as all its products are made from waste, leftovers and samples from the textile industry nationally and by social partners, such as IPSS users, social causes, active aging, refugees, prisons, etc. To date, 6.8 tons of fabric and accessories have been recovered, €60,000.00 paid to social partners and more than 40 pedagogy actions for change in schools, universities and organizations. The territory of Braga is inseparable from the re.store brand, here are some examples:

• The Braga City Council was its first client; • The first IPSS he worked with was from Braga;
• Belongs to the group of acceleration companies of Braga’s social innovation incubator, Human Power Hub;
• Launched its re.store With with Tetribérica collection at the Braga Business Association Fashion Show;
• Has social partners in Braga with whom he works regularly;
• There are several pedagogy actions already carried out in Braga schools, including a partnership with Quinta Pedagógica with a material upcycling workshop (fabric and cardboard);
• A partnership will be made with to parade with models from the re.store Wear with Tetribérica collection on May 10th of 2024 at the BragaModa event organized by the Braga Business Association

A pilot project is planned for the implementation of a system for the collection, recycling and recovery of end-of-life clothing and textile waste, and the use of an app or platform for the circular economy of textile products – “TO-BE-GREEN APP” – in 6 schools and 1 municipal building. The app will allow its users to deliver end-of-life clothing, supported by a system of awarding points for the deliveries of each registered user and allowing the subsequent obtaining of other clothing items or other circular economy products with the accumulated points, ensuring the traceability of each garment delivered through the assignment of a unique automatic code, supported by QRCODE, RFID and NFC technologies, and using data analytics and processing tools, in accordance with the new trends of Industry 4.0. The “CIRCULAR BAGS” needed for the collection and temporary deposit of clothing deliveries will be placed in a total of 10 collection points selected by the City Council.