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Med4Waste, a project that helped improve municipal waste management along the Mediterranean, comes to an end.


Med4Waste promoted the utilization and widest dissemination of successful practices and results of previously financed projects on municipal waste management. 

The main achievements have been the development of a MOOC with more than 200 students enrolled so far, the elaboration of a catalogue with 22 solutions on waste management, the engagement with more than 400 stakeholders, the development of more than 30 awareness rising campaigns, and the creation and/or improvement of 6 Integrated Waste Managment Plan (IWMP) in 3 countries.

Med4Waste comes to an end supporting and strengthening the Mediterranean regional dialogue and cooperation on sustainable waste management.

The mentoring scheme was designed to create and/or improve the integrated municipal waste management plans (IWMP) of 6 selected cities from the southern Mediterranean region (Lebanon, Jordan, and Tunisia), to help them implement tailor-made supporting actions to implement those plans; and promote the replication of successful actions being implemented in other projects from the ENI CBC Med community through a twinning and exchange program. The six cities carried out supporting actions for their IWMP such as studies on the pricing system, trainings for municipal staff, awareness campaigns, and coaching for school teachers.

The operational know-how of the Med4Waste project has been used to develop a Policy Toolkit on Solid Municipal Waste Management, which contains policy recommendations and guidelines for decision makers. It synthesizes the main lessons learned from the Med4Waste activities oriented at building skills, planning, and decision-making capacities of Mediterranean municipalities and waste management practitioners, on top of the achievements and challenges of the capitalized projects, amongst other sources of knowledge. It also takes note of the state of play in municipal solid waste management in Mediterranean countries, taking account of national and local contexts and policies while also addressing the main bottlenecks. Overall leading to policy recommendations for national, regional, and local authorities seeking to enhance sustainable waste management and specifically its organic component.

Reaching policy makers at the municipal, regional, and Mediterranean levels to help reach the goals of the with the support of the 2030 GreenerMed Agenda with the support of the Union for the Mediterranean.

To disseminate all this information, more than 30 different awareness rising campaigns have been carried out. One of the more impactful ones is the development of a videogame to increase awareness and knowledge about waste management amongst young people in the Mediterranean region. The videogame, named Eco-Builder, incorporates knowledge from the successful practices in its design, and there are PC, Android, and iOS versions available.

Let’s play for a cleaner Mediterranean! Empowering youth people with waste knowledge

The project organized its final event from the 24th to the 26th of October in Sardinia, Italy, a 3-daylong event co-organized with the WES-MED project. The event brought together more than 200 policy makers, ministry officials, local authorities, the private sector, NGOs, researchers from more than 23 countries, and stakeholders, to strengthen capacities and skills for informed decision-making related to decentralized waste management in the region. The island of Sardinia was chosen as a host region that has a lot to show for itself in terms of its progress on this topic in the last years. The event combined working sessions and study visits, including the presentation of the Med4Waste key findings mentioned above, innovative practices and models applicable in various municipalities, and it helped strengthen the regional dialogue and cooperation on sustainable waste management. The project will end the 30th of November, right after the Day of the Mediterranean, when we celebrate our shared identity, common heritage, and love for the Mediterranean. Caring about this means improving our waste management systems!

Link for more information on the project: Med4Waste | ENI CBC Med