Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

This initiative comes as part of the biggest hackathon in the world, organised by NASA Space Apps, an event set to bring together over 31,000 people.

Barcelona City Council has teamed up with NASA Space Apps and Ecovidrio to raise awareness about how important it is to recycle glass in the fight against climate change. To this end, glass recycling containers have been installed in the city with QR odes that invite people to learn more about how NASA is working to monitor the changes in our planet, gathering data to help with decision-making.

Ecovidrio have added vinyl to the containers with the campaign slogan “Every time you recycle glass, you’re looking out for the planet”, reflecting the commitment to sustainability and the protection of the environment. Thanks to the the recycling of glass containers in 2022 our country managed to avoid 587,432 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. The production of new glass containers from recycled glass (or calcium) helps save energy and avoid the mining of raw materials. Thanks to glass recycling, Spain managed to save 723,351 MWh of energy in 2022, a quantity equivalent to two months of energy consumption in all the hospitals in Spain.

The containers have also been installed in Leon and Bilbao, two cities which will be teaming up with Madrid, Malaga, Seville and Barcelona to host the world’s biggest hackathon on 7 and 8 October, organised by NASA Space Apps. This event is expected to bring together over 300 people with different profiles: programmers, scientists, designers, narrators, creators, constructors, technologists and others. Participants will work in teams to resolve the challenges set out by the NASA team.

NASA is one of the main observers of climate change on our planet from space, and recognises the urgent need to tackle this crisis. The institution invests over 1,000 million dollars a year to monitor vital aspects of our planet, from oceans and land to the atmosphere and the biosphere.