Condeixa integrates project to pay only for the produced waste

 

The Municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova is part of the international project Life PAYT, in partnership with other municipalities and institutions, it was announced today.

The project Life PAYT, approved by the European Commission in June 2016, called “PAYT – Tool to Reduce Waste in Southern Europe”, aims to introduce methods, technologies and actions that lead to behavior change on the part of the population in respect of waste contributing to the prevention and reduction of the amount of mixed waste and to increase the separation.

Pioneer in southern Europe, this project is based on the principle “Pay-as-You-Throw” ie “pay only what they throw away,” and aims to encourage through financial mechanisms the source separation and the increase in waste packaging sent for recycling.

This operation approved in 2015 call, the LIFE program managed by the European Commission, round the two and a half million euros, and is led by Célia Dias-Ferreira, coordinator of the Research Group on Environment and Society CERNAS – Resource Studies Center natural, Environment and Society of Higher Agricultural School of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra (IPC).

The project started on September 1, 2016 and lasts for three years. The consortium led by the CPI includes seven partners: Municipality of Condeixa-a-Nova, Câmara Municipal de Aveiro, Lisbon City Council, Municipality of Larnaka (Cyprus), Municipality of Vrilissia (Greece), University of Athens National Technical (Greece) and the University of Aveiro.

Project Life PAYT Condeixa

During the project Life PAYT will receive the ‘PAYT’ tariff to about 440 producers of municipal waste, including not only those that produce over 1 100 liters of waste per day, but also non-domestic producers that are below this value. The list includes supermarkets and small shops, restaurants, nursing homes, gardens for children and some industrial units.

The intervention of the project in this area will involve changes to the current collection system in use in the domestic and non-domestic producers share the same containers.

During the project will be distributed to producers non-domestic containers for their exclusive use, identified with an RFID chip (radio frequency identification). At the time of collection, the chip information is read by an optical sensor added to the collection vehicle and the data are transmitted via GPRS to a centralized platform, where they are processed. The volume of waste is measured included in the invoice to send the end of the month to the owner of the container.

The identification of the container via an RFID system is essential to ensure traceability, monitor the amount of waste produced and optimize collection routes.

Besides the identification of containers, also improving vehicle collection and optimization of collection routes will be developed. Very old or damaged containers will be replaced and new ecopoints will be installed to reinforce the circuit of selective collection.

Condeixa expected a significant increase in the amount of recyclables collected as a result of the project, in 1082 tonnes per year, with a market value of € 138.547 (SPV).

The project consists of a team of experts from different universities and business areas, from engineering to social scientists, who decided to join forces with the technical staff and management of five municipalities of Portugal, Greece and Cyprus to implement the Life project PAYT.

How to connect the waste who produces them?

The team will make use of different strategies in order to link the waste producer to the amount of waste produced, namely:

– Identification of container, through the use of RFID technology in individual containers. At the time of collection, the chip information in the container (volume and owner) is read by an optical sensor in the vehicle for the collection and data are transmitted via GPRS to a centralized platform, where they are processed. The volume of waste is included on the invoice to be sent at the end of the month to the owner of the container.

– User ID: giving access to public container through ID cards. They will be recorded every time a particular resident uses the container to put their waste, and this information will be sent via GPRS to a centralized platform for processing. The volume of waste deposited by each resident is then calculated based on the number of times you accessed the container and the compartment volume places where garbage. This information is used to compile the monthly bill.

The launch of the project Life PAYT is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon in City Hall in Lisbon.

Original report in Campeão das Províncias.