The story of Gipuzkoa

Spain

Thanks to an alternative infrastructure plan, the province of Gipuzkoa, located in the Spanish Basque Country, has almost doubled its recycling rate in four years (from 2011 to 2015) and made investing in an incineration plant obsolete. The new plan aimed at complying with the EU recycling targets of 50% for 2020, phasing out the disposal of recyclable waste and stopping landfilling of untreated waste. To achieve these ambitious goals four measures were implemented:

  • Intensive separate collection
  • A special attention to the treatment of organic waste for which especially dedicated practices such as home-composting and community composting were encourage
  • Specific projects were developed with social players to build awareness about waste reduction and reuse
  • To prevent food waste, in 2013 the government collaborated with the Food Bank of Gipuzkoa to work with people with risk of social exclusion to distribute 741 tons of food to those in need.

Today, the province is the living proof that a transition towards a circular economy system is possible: 

  • Waste generation reduced by 7%
  • Residual waste reduced by 32% 
  • Recycling rate raised from 32% to 51% 
  • Creation of 10 times more jobs in the treatment of waste 

Download the Case Study

Further questions?

Contact us if you want more information on the case study

CONTACT US

Other Best Practices

Learn from the frontrunners how a city can move towards zero waste

DISCOVER ALL

The story of Calatafimi Segesta

Italy

Calatafimi Segesta may be small, but it provides one of Europe’s leading examples of how an island municipality can implement an effective zero waste strategy whilst also focusing on improving the lives of the local community.

START

42,77%

Separate collection

NOW

85,74%

Separate collection

The story of Tübingen

Tübingen/Germany

The German city of Tübingen took the pioneering steps of introducing a city wide tax on single-use plastic items, which formed just one part of a wider strategy to foster reuse within the city.

START

Introduction of tax on some single-use items

NOW

15%

decrease of waste in public spaces

europe-logo

Supported by the LIFE Programme of the European Union. This website does not necessarily reflect the views of the donors.