Technical developments 30/11/2012

Technical developments – Report n. 4

01.06.2012 - 30.11.2012

Task 1 - Project Management by all associated beneficiaries

The project management (by the coordinator and by the associated beneficiaries) proceeds normally either from technical point of view and from administrative and financial point of view.

The 6th coordination meeting was held on 27 November 2012 when all associated beneficiaries agreed on the procedures of involvement of new families in the second phase of experimentation by adopting the strategies proposed by DEI. It was also discussed the organization of possible different systems of waste collection in municipalities.

The next meeting will be held in April 2013.

TASK 2: CONTEXT ANALYSIS - Preparatory actions – All activities completed

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: Regione Siciliana Department of Environment and Department of Waste and Water

Normative and Social evaluation of the existing situation related to waste collection; identification and analysis of successful stories related to the management of domestic organic waste at source.

TASK 3: PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT – All activities completed in February 2011

Design and development of a suitable Prototype System for the organic waste treatment and composting at source in households.

TASK 4: PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLANNING

Experimentation and evaluation initiatives among local authorities and households

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT and all associated beneficiaries

Action 4.1 - Local Representatives involvement - Completed in July 2012

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT and all associated beneficiaries

1 st experimentation phase started at the end of December 2011 (Gaggi) and in January 2012 (in Castelmola and Melilli) with the distribution of no. 26 prototypes to three partner municipalities and the start of testing thanks to involvement of n. 24 families and some local government officials who tested NOWASTE prototypes at the town halls (in Melilli and Castelmola).

The first phase of testing was completed in July 2012 - Action 4.3.

The role of these families, opinion leaders called "Project’s best friends" or " N.O.WA.S.T.E. Friends" was extremely important because it was the first time in everyday family life and for a long period (6 months). We faced many difficulties and we solved it through collaboration and proactive attitude of families and municipal employees working in local NOWASTE info-points.

They have worked closely with IRSSAT Team for example in technical assistance visits to fix malfunctions. Moreover they also cooperated taking samples of pre-compost and washing liquid every week.

In these municipalities IRSSAT organized no. 3 workshops and informational meetings for involved families.

Moreover in each town was open a NOWASTE infopoint with municipal staff dedicated to inform and support the families who participated in the trial also providing basic technical assistance.

From January 2012 families have actively cooperated using prototypes in their homes and collecting data and samples to highlight all technical critical issues.

From the data collected IRSSAT has started a long process of prototype improvement to make it more functional and easily integrated into their homes.

Action 4.2 – Selection procedures: questionnaires and data analisys - Completed in October 2012

Beneficiary responsible: DEI

DEI (Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania - ex DEMQ) established benchmarks by which simplified questionnaires have been developed to select the families who will participate in the second phase of testing. DEI’s Analysis will help municipalities to proceed with the gradual involvement of other families as they join the testing activities to cover 100% of the resident population in Castelmola and 50% in Gaggi, while in Melilli will be involved 200 families residing in the same district.

DEI has also developed a specific “software” or better called spreadsheet able to elaborates all data in relation to the project and benchmarks for families gradual involvement. Moreover DEI suggested to adopt some “market strategies” to promote NOWASTE project among people more sensitive towards environmental issues.

Task 5 - Monitoring and Evaluation of the context and results of the project

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT and DEI

This task includes the following ongoing activities:

Evaluation of the compost product: the ultimate goal is to obtain high-quality compost that could also be used in organic farming, for this reason it is necessary a continuous evaluation through laboratory analysis of the pre-compost and liquid (i.e. liquid fermentation and process water).
Collaboration with experts in the field of composting and organic waste treatment in order to ensure a thorough comparison of the various experiences and adequately develop the analysis on the standards of the system. The results of the analyzes and studies are progressively published on the website of the project and presented during the events.
Analysis on the final uses of compost: possible production of pellets (during last half of the project) and study on biogas production during fermentation
Monitoring activities against the implementation of the project: critical evaluation of ongoing operations, data collection, business re-engineering and re-programming, risk analysis and threat assessment study of the solutions to be implemented, evaluations about stakeholders involvement and monitoring website.

Dissemination Task 6 - Campaign to promote the project

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT and all associated beneficiaries

Includes the organization of all events to promote the project.

During the European Week for Waste Reduction Municipalities of Gaggi and Castelmola organized the 2^nd edition of "GAMES WITHOUT WASTE". All students of local schools participated together with their parents and teachers.

Now we’re organizing a and competitions opened to all Italian schools new great dissemination event in May 2013.

This task includes also all NOWASTE presentations realized by associated beneficiaries’ representatives, in fact our project was presented even during these events:

Travelling exhibit and initiatives for the 20^th anniversary of LIFE in Sicily, during the month of May 2012
Celebration of the 20th Anniversary of Life Program at the University of Brescia, 25/05/2012
“Festa del cambiamento” in Acilia, 23/06/2012
Ecomondo in Rimini, 09/11/2012

Finally, to reach and educate young people living in the three partner municipalities, during the EWWR 2012, IRSSAT launched the start of the training activities under Action 6.2.

Action 6.2 - Training learning programme for young people

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: IRSSAT

This training program is particularly oriented towards young people and local administrators involvement. The goal is to increase the knowledge of young people on environmental issues in general and specifically on the sustainable management of local resources and waste.

We organized n. 6 courses (2 per municipality) for the involvement of a total of 120 young people aged between 19 and 35 years. To give the opportunity to participate in as many stakeholders as possible, we decided that all requests will be accepted until the capacity of the room. Particular attention will be paid in respect of planning new proposals to promote an integrated co-operation with local administrators to create new initiatives and opportunities and business related to the green economy, seeking also appropriate tools and incentives that could support the creation of cooperatives for local composting centers.

The young participants to the first module will be involved in the statistics survey that will be coordinated by DEI - Action 5.2 and collaborating on hiring for the families who participate in the second phase of experimentation.

The municipalities have offered their homes for the courses and have published the notice with the appropriate registration form. The training activities are carried out by the training institution "Educational Center sas".

FIRST COURSE

Duration: 60 hours - Start: January 2013 - Venue: Municipalities of Castelmola- Auditorium, Gaggi - Council Hall and Melilli - Council hall Main themes:

European and national normative framework for environmental development, environmental policies
Normative framework for regional waste management, waste analysis plan and regional program for the prevention of waste production
Techniques and tools of environmental investigation and evaluation
Analysis of the territory and sustainable exploitation of local resources
Guided visits to composting centers
Proposals and Final Report

Task 7 – Guidelines and Project Sustainability

Action 7.2. Regional Networking

Beneficiary responsible for implementation: Regione Siciliana, Department of Environment and Department of Waste and Water

This action and the activities planned for the creation of the Regional Network started in advance with respect to the timetable thanks to the interest shown by several national and Sicilian municipalities towards prototype testing or simply its results, evidenced by the many involvement requests and expression of interest received by the coordinator Beneficiary.

On the occasion of the Mid-term NOWA.STE conference, held on May 16, 2012 in Catania to present the results currently achieved by the project, we "launched" the Regional Network, focusing on the need for a multi-institutional table (consisting of regional, provincial and municipal entities) permanent aimed at addressing the issue of waste management in Sicily in an integral and integrated way.

The institutional table will be an opportunity for the exchange of good practices in the field of recycling organic waste, to identify financial resources to promote the NOWA.STE system, to promote legislative proposals in the field of waste management, to improve the dialogue among the territorial municipal and regional administrations, to collect useful data for the development of guidelines for the future arrangement of this system.

First results: we have already registered n. 11 expressions of interest from Mayors and we expect the adhesion of at least as many municipalities within 6 months after the starting of Regional Network meetings of the institutional table. While the objective of involving at least 40 public officials has already been reached during the mid-term conference of May 16, 2012.