VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW INTERREG 4C TO PROMOTE PREVENTION & SHORT CYCLE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIC MATERIALS/ WASTE SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Waste prevention & management INTERREG 4C Main Topic Enhancing waste management methods & policies –developing practical guides for integrated local waste management Sub Topic

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Employment, human capital & education Setting up or improving local employment development (LED) initiatives Enhancing the labor market participation of discriminated groups Entrepreneurship & SMEs Supporting the economic diversification of rural areas Supporting regional business support structures & approaches to assisting SMEs Water management Supporting integrated, sustainable and participatory approaches to the management of inland waters INTERREG 4C Possible Cross cutting issues

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Organic waste management is and will remain one of the main challenges for local and regional authorities in the years to come. Land filling won’t be an option anymore and incineration not recommendable from an financial & environmental point of view. Centralized composting or digestion with energy recovery of organic waste is well established in numerous countries in Europe. Even though this option is favored compared to land filling & incineration it still has considerable environmental impacts (collection) and economical considerations. Organic waste is too often considered as waste rather than as a resource. Very few countries have programmes in place that consider shortening the cycle of organic materials or even better preventing organic materials to be generated. INTERREG 4C Problem analysis

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Organic waste should be regarded as a waste that becomes a resource. Decentralized composting can be regarded as an appropriate, environmentally friendly & economical way to manage this resource if managed in a proper way. Single house composting, multi house composting, small scale composting and (farm) co- composting can be considered as decentralized composting methods. Going even further upstream one could argue that preventing organic materials to be generated would be the ideal situation. Smart gardening, smart consumption (food) and smart production are ways that have the potential to address these issues. INTERREG 4C Objective analysis

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Considering both aspects (prevention and short cycle of organic materials) one should look into experiences and good practices that have been developed throughout Europe with regard to policy development, legislation in place as well as information & sensitization campaigns, educational tools, technical innovation, carbon bilan research/ results, training programmes, financial incentives & monitoring programmes,… Most European countries, be it regional or local authorities, have developed or are in the process of developing policies and legislation and have gained a level of experience wrt waste prevention & short cycle of organic materials. INTERREG 4C Objective analysis

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Regional and local authorities will decrease the adverse effects of ill- managed biodegradable waste through the successful introduction and implementation of prevention & short cycle management practices INTERREG 4C Global visionary objective To offer smart and adequate tools & instruments to the partners & interested parties in order for them to be able to implement sustainable prevention & short cycle management practices in the field of biodegradable waste Strategic objective

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Identify successes and failures within all partner regions on the sub themes home, collective and on-site composting Identify opportunities and preliminary good practices within targeted partner regions on the sub themes smart consumption and smart gardening Identify policy, legal, environmental, economic, social and educational constraints on the development of those sub themes Integrate the identified successes, opportunities, failures and constraints by the partner regions in analysis’s for the different identified and described sub theme practices Compare, integrate and finally communicate good practice guidelines on the different sub themes INTERREG 4C Operational objectives

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Exchange, share and transfer policy experiences and approaches Joint training for partners by partners specialised in sub themes Joint testing in (light) pilot experimentations of developed approaches, services & products based on the adoption & adaptation of existing good practices by the partner regions Disseminate the results to all partners and interested parties Develop a performing, easy to use program communication tool for the project lifetime Develop & test regional/ local policy tools including methodologies and software packages. INTERREG 4C Operational objectives

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Partners should agree on subjects/ themes as presented in the project theme table Member state partners should have the potential to adopt & adapt most of the subjects/ themes that will be considered New member state partners should be chosen in accordance to their capability to exchange some experience wrt one or more of the subjects/ themes Partners should preferably be local or regional authorities (75%) Partners should accept the 75%/ 85% rule INTERREG 4C Partners (preferably min. 8 to max. 12 partners)

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Biodegradable waste means waste that can be commonly found in municipal solid waste (sometimes called biodegradable municipal waste, or BMW) as green waste, food waste, paper waste, and biodegradable plastics. Other biodegradable wastes include human waste, manure, sewage, slaughterhouse waste.municipal solid waste green wastefood wastepaperbiodegradable plastics biodegradablehuman wastemanuresewage slaughterhouse waste Composting means the autothermic and thermophilic biological decomposition of separately collected biodegradable waste in the presence of oxygen and under controlled conditions by the action of micro- and macro-organisms in order to produce compost. Home composting means the composting of biodegradable as well as the use of the compost in a garden belonging to a private household Community composting means the composting of biodegradable waste by a group of people in a locality with the aim at composting their own and other people’s biodegradable waste in order to manage the supplied biodegradable waste as close as possible to the point at which it was produced. INTERREG 4C Definitions

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW On site institutional composting means the composting of biodegradable waste by institutions such as universities, schools, hospitals, etc whereby food scraps, paper and yard trimmings are processed at onsite composting facilities. Smart consumption means preventing food waste to enter into the waste stream by focusing on behavioural changes related to food purchasing, food storage, food preparation and food treatment. Smart gardening means preventing garden organic waste to be generated through smart design, choice of plants & implements, grass cycling, etc. Short cycle management of biodegradable waste means treating biodegradable waste as close as possible to the place where it is generated. Decentralised composting is the most common practice. INTERREG 4C Definitions

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Single house composting = technique whereby a single household composts kitchen & garden organic resources in a bin, box or heap in the backyard of the garden Multi-house composting = technique whereby families of multi- house establishments compost mainly kitchen organic resources in boxes or heaps in the immediate vicinity of the multi-house establishment Small scale composting = technique whereby mainly green organic resources of parcs, recreational areas are composted in or close to the area of generating Farm (co-composting) = technique whereby farmers use farm and household resources to compost or digest with energy recovery at the farm. INTERREG 4C Terminology short cycle management of organic materials

VLAAMSE COMPOSTORGANISATIE VZW Brief history of the project Problem description/ issue addressed Objectives of the project (see higher) Expected outputs & results of the project Approach & methodology Components of the project (min. 3 – max. 5) Durability of the project results Contribution to the Lisbon & Gothenburg agendas Consistency of the project’s implementation with EU horizontal policies Roles & tasks amongst partners INTERREG 4C Proposal writing