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Description
Waste management is an important issue for the inhabitants of Lodz. Problems with the adoption of the resolution on charges for waste disposal and controversies about its legality affect most residents. In our project, we want to examine whether the decisions of the City Council of Lodz on waste management are consistent with the EU guidelines and the Polish law. We want to develop recommendations and increase knowledge of officials and citizens of Lodz about the correct procedures of waste management. As part of the project, we will monitor the law concerning waste management in Lodz. We will elaborate a report with conclusions and recommendations. We will organize a training for officials on good governance and transparency, and a study visit to Iceland. We will carry out communication activities, including a public debate, press conferences, and sharing materials on waste management. The project is addressed to officials and councilors of the City Council of Lodz, community activists, members of neighbourhood councils, journalists interested in the topic of waste management and residents. The project has a great social potential, because it affects all inhabitants of Lodz, the city with a third largest population in Poland. The positive effects of the watchdog activities can motivate the City Council to take decisive action on rational waste management, make residents aware of the importance of waste management for their health and strengthen environmental organizations as advocates for the common good.The project is implemented in partnership with 3 organizations: Landvern from Iceland, Ecoteca from Romania and the Federation of Greens Cracow Group Association.
Summary of project results
The "Waste Advice" project was devoted to municipal waste management in Łódź. It fit perfectly into the local context of changing the rate of waste collection fees and planned investments in the city, which are not consistent with the assumptions of the Circular Economy.
The aim of the project concerned three issues:
1. examine whether the City of Łódź Office in its decisions on waste management is guided by EU guidelines and national regulations,
2. preparation of recommendations,
3. increasing the knowledge of officials and residents of Łódź about proper waste management procedures. In the course of the project activities, it was fully achieved.
A number of activities were carried out as part of the project:
1. detailed monitoring of the law related to waste management in Łódź - the state of waste management was determined through the analysis of publicly available documents and detailed information about the entire system, applications for access to public information were applied, an analysis of the Waste Database was carried out, and visits were made to plants included in the system waste. In addition, the legal basis for the municipal waste management system in Łódź was determined (both local and national legal acts), a diagnosis was made along with general comments on the system and reporting, waste management methods and planned investments such as the construction of a Municipal Waste Thermal Processing Installation (i.e. a waste incinerator). ).
2. preparation of a report containing monitoring conclusions and recommendations - a firm NO to building a waste incineration plant in Łódź, processing of kitchen bio-waste, increasing the level of education of residents
3. organization of a debate and press conference devoted to the watchdog report
4. conducting training for officials on the principles of good governance and transparency,
5. communication activities, including the publication and promotion of substantive text materials, podcasts, graphics, photos related to the topic of waste, preparation and distribution of two editions of the social newspaper "Aktacyjne Obywatelska",
6. cooperation with partners, exchange of experiences, study visit to Iceland.
The project was aimed at several target groups. The first were officials of the City of Łódź Office, to whom the training was addressed, and with whom we cooperated in obtaining information from the Waste Database.
The second group were councilors to whom, among others, requests for interpellations or participation in the debate.
The next group were activists and social activists from Łódź who took an active part in the events organized as part of the project.
Members of estate councils were also an important group, as they, as an intermediary body between all estate residents and the city authorities, were present at meetings organized as part of the project and constituted an important voice in the topics discussed there.
A broad but indirect target group were the readers of Tygodnik Spraw Obywatelskich and the newspaper "Citizenship Activity".
Summary of bilateral results
The most important result of this activity was a study visit to Iceland. It took place on June 13-17, 2022 and was attended by 3 representatives of the Project Promoter. On the second day of the visit, the beach was cleaned of plastic together with the Blai Herinn organization. On the third day, we met at Landvernd''s headquarters to discuss our cooperation so far and the progress of the project. Then we went together to SORPA, which is the city''s treatment plant. We visited a garbage sorting plant, a composting plant and a landfill. Eiríkur Örn Þorsteinsson showed us around all the places. He showed us the entire waste management process in Reykjavik: from collection, through transport, sorting, processing - including composting - to storage.On the fourth day, we went again to the Landvernd headquarters to talk to the Plastalus September organization, which has been running a successful educational campaign to reduce the use of single-use plastic products for several years. In addition, we also met with representatives of the Polish community in Iceland, who told us about municipal waste management from the perspective of ordinary residents. On the fifth day at 5:45 there was a return flight to Berlin.A report from the visit was published on the website https://instytutsprawobywatelskich.pl/tak-sortuja-smieci-w-reykjaviku/.A text on waste management in Romania prepared by the Romanian partner - Asociatia Ecoteca/Ecoteca Association has been published (https://instytutsprawobywatelskich.pl/how-waste-management-works-in-romania/)As part of the sub-measure, magazines (Energy and recycling) and books related to waste were purchased. They became an inspiration for, among others, creating materials under activity 5.