Urban waste is a major waste stream that ends up most of the time in an incinerating installation or as landfill. Even in Flanders, a region with a strong waste sorting policy, and where "the polluter will pay the bill", the average citizen still produces 30 kg of bulky waste per year (which is about 1/5 of the total amount of residual waste).
However, sorting analyses have proved that there are still possibilities for improvement by means of prevention, a more selective collection but also by means of novel sorting and recycling techniques or logistic solutions.
URBANREC aims at an integrated approach to investigate all these possibilities. The project focuses on the main urban waste streams: wood, mattresses (in the form of PU-foam), mixed textiles and mixed plastics.
The following Belgian participants, coordinated by CENTEXBEL form a core group within the project an will elaborate a model recycling approach in Flanders:
- ACR+ Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management
- VANHEEDE Evironment group
- OVAM
- IMOG
- PROCOTEX