Material from the MWC for social and cultural ends

Material from the MWC for social and cultural ends

Mobile World Congress. The MWC Donation Room gives a new life to five tonnes of material from the congress.

The MWC Donation Room has recovered five tonnes of material from the Mobile World Congress, with social organisations set to help it reach social services users and social and cultural projects based in Barcelona and L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. The material collected includes 570 pieces of furniture.

The MWC Donation Room is an initiative which started in 2016 to offer exhibitors a platform to contribute to the local community by donating materials used during the fair. The event organisers, GSMA, Fira de Barcelona, the Barcelona Tourist Consortium, the Fundació Formació i Treball and the city councils of the two host cities all collaborate.

Coordinated by the Fundació Formació i Treball, a team of 23 people spent six days collecting cupboards, chairs, furniture modules, stools and decorative materials such as lamps, pictures, bins, shelves, plants, household items and drinking vessels. The material collected, with an approximate value of 26,000 euros, is being given to organisations such as the Associació Cívica la Nau, the Fundació IRES, the Fundació Roure, La Nau Vila Besòs, Càritas, the Banc de Recursos and the Pont Solidari, which will distribute it among other projects.

The Donation Room is part of the environmental programme by GSMA, which has the goal of minimising the environmental impact of the MWC in five key areas: energy, products and waste; food and food waste; logistics and travel and accommodation. The congress has received a carbon-neutral certificate for nine years and has been recognised four times by Guinness World Records as the biggest carbon-neutral event in the world.