MWC Donation Room recovers 26.3 tonnes of material from MWC25 for social and cultural projects
Barcelona City Council's Department of Tourism, the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, GSMA, Fira de Barcelona, the Formació i Treball Foundation and L’Hospitalet City Council collaborate to make this social return and circular economy initiative possible.
Barcelona this year recovered 26.3 tonnes of different materials used in MWC25. It included 2,742 items of various materials such as carpeting, furniture and other elements. The world’s biggest and most influential connectivity event, which closed out with 109,000 people attending and over 2,900 exhibitors and sponsors, has introduced the MWC Donation Room project to make the recovery of this material possible.
This project forms part of the environmental programme by GSMA, which seeks to minimise the ecological footprint of MWC in five key areas: energy, products and waste, food and food waste, logistics, and travel and accommodation
A second life for social projects
Valued at 73,000 euros, the recovered materials will be distributed among 23 social organisations. This means a second life for them with organisations that use them for users of social services or social and cultural projects in Barcelona and L’Hospitalet, linked to women, functional diversity and the gender perspective.
One of the organisations to benefit is the Federation of Deaf People of Catalonia (FESOCA). The reuse of the materials and furniture not only represents economic savings, but also savings in emissions of nearly 30,000 kilogrammes of CO2.
The MWC Donation Room was launched in 2016 to give exhibitors a platform to help the local community by donating the materials used during the event. The initiative is possible thanks to collaboration between Barcelona City Council’s Department of Tourism, the Barcelona Tourism Consortium, GSMA, Fira de Barcelona, the Formació i Treball Foundation and L’Hospitalet City Council.
