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Zero waste
The municipal waste prevention strategy and Barcelona Zero Waste are based on three priority elements: PREVENTION referring to joint responsibility among citizens in waste management (the best waste is waste that is not generated); prevention referring to REUSE; and prevention referring to improved and better-quality SELECTIVE WASTE COLLECTION, and more specifically, of preferably organic matter.
Work is being carried out in the same line, under the Barcelona Zero Waste concept, to develop an economy that closes the cycles of everything we produce and does not involve any waste generation. That way, the green points, exchange markets, organic components and conscientious and responsible consumption, as well as the promotion of a citizen awareness of good use, encourage a circular economy, seeing as they enable the maximum proportion of waste to be recycled and reused.
The ultimate aim is to avoid throwing anything away into grey containers (refuse) and bringing continuity to waste. Whether because it can be recycled or have a second life or because it has to be specially treated to be eliminated.
Though not part of this, Barcelona shares the goals of the Catalan Zero Waste Strategy (ECRZ), an initiative that promotes a change in model in our country’s production and consumption systems, to close material and energy cycles. It is a way of fostering strategies that avoid waste generation, rejecting final treatments (rubbish dumps and incinerators) as viable alternatives for managing non-recoverable fractions.