UrbanWINS launches its online agora, a virtual space for debate on waste prevention and management

UrbanWINS, an EU-funded project aiming at developing and testing methods for designing and implementing eco-innovative strategic plans for waste prevention, has launched its “UrbanWINS agora”, a participative virtual community to share knowledge and discuss ideas on the topics of waste, resources and innovation. The UrbanWINS agoras facilitate citizen and other stakeholder feedback into the project, as well as encourage and promote brainstorming among participants, co-creation of the solutions, and a shift towards more sustainable consumption and production patterns. The UrbanWINS agora is accessible through the project website: https://www.urbanwins.eu/online-agora/

In addition to citizens’ involvement, participants in the online “UrbanWINS Agora” will include governments, organisations, waste management solution providers, research institutes and educational centres. The online platform will inform about international activities and ideas and also connect to face-to-face workshops and local actions organised in eight pilot cities across Europe – Cremona,Torino, and two cities within the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Albano Laziale and Pomezia (Italy), Bucharest (Romania), Leiria (Portugal), Manresa and Sabadell (Spain).

The recommendations and tools co-developed with the involvement of citizens will be replicable to other cities. One of the final outcomes of the project will be a toolkit for participatory and science-based decision-making and planning for waste prevention and management that can be applied in any public authority across Europe.

The UrbanWINS website – www.urbanwins.eu -, hosting the agora, has been live for four months and it provides a wealth of information on the project, its goals and approach. Each of the pilot cities has its own webpage, providing detailed date on its waste management and prevention strategies and figures. The project has also developed a “Sector Watch”, a highly targeted source of information for public procurers working on the waste sector, where developments are monitored and shared that can be accessed from the website.

Background information

UrbanWINS is a three-year project that started in June 2016 and is funded by the Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020. It analyses how cities consume resources and products, and how they eliminate the waste produced, in order to develop and test eco-innovative plans and solutions aimed at improving waste prevention and management. The participatory approach is an added value of UrbanWINS, as the vision of all relevant players for waste production and management at urban level will be taken into account.