Progress and achieved results

The project continues in the implementation of planned activities and the difficulties occurred especially during the initial phase are now overcome.

Progress of ongoing actions:

Task 1 - Project Management by all associated beneficiaries

The project management (by the coordinator and by the associated beneficiaries) proceeds normally ither from technical point of view and from administrative and financial point of view.
The 5th coordination meeting was held over two days on 16 and 17 May 2012 in conjunction with the second monitoring visit carried out by the external monitoring team GEIE Astrale-Timesis and by the LIFE technical Desk Officer.

Task 2 - "Normative analysis and studies on domestic habits"

BENEFICIARY Responsible for this action: Regional Department of Environment and Department of Regional Water and Waste
The two actions of this task are both done and completed. Two different studies (foreseen as deliverables) were also published in digital form on the website of the project www.lifenowaste.it

The first one shows the normative national and international framework about waste management instead the 2^nd study explains domestic habits of Sicilian families regarding waste collection and presents a collection of strategies and technologies adopted by different municipalities to implement a sustainable separate collection of urban rubbish.
However, DRA intends to examine in depth some of the addressed issues during the course of the next steps of the project in light of the fact that the waste management system in Sicily is currently undergoing reorganization phase which will quickly lead to a new management framework that will be needed examine in detail in order to arrive finally to the drafting of the Guideline end of the project.
In addition to the many already received acceptances from Sicilian municipalities interested in participating in the project NOWA.STE, we decided to anticipate the action 7.2 "Regional Network and sustainability of the project" officially presenting during the Mid-term Conference of last May 16, 2012, to start immediately a calendar of technical meetings that can guarantee the continuous and in-depth comparison among regional and local administrators in order to develop new and concrete actions related to the N.O.WA.S.T.E. project especially for activities in waste reduction.
In this regard, Eng. Domenico Michelon (Responsible for waste emergency in Regione Siciliana OPCM n.3887/2010) during his speech in the context of this conference has proposed the hypothesis that the Sicilian municipalities could benefit of economic saves by promoting measures for the reduction of waste. In this context it could be included the adoption of the N.O.WA.S.T.E. system and the use of prototypes.

Task 4 - Involvement of local actors and the first stage of experimentation.
From December 2011, the first phase of the experimentation was started, in fact no. 24 prototypes were distributed for many families living in the three partner municipalities: Gaggi, Castelmola and Melilli.

In these municipalities IRSSAT has created workshops and informational meetings with the families involved, and also the municipal info-points have been activated to inform and support the families participating in the trial and also to provide basic technical assistance.
From January families actively collaborate using the prototypes in their homes and collecting data and samples to highlight all these issues.
From the data collected has started a long process of prototype improvement to make it more functional and easily integrated into their homes.

The critical issues that have been highlighted during daily use and they are mainly due to technical problems already overcome with the new prototype upgrading in progress.
Other difficulties arise from the fact that it was necessary to implement a collection system for the liquid to allow the sampling of "process water". Instead new version of the NOWASTE prototypes can be connected to the water network, and they will be provided by a bigger waste bucket.
The liquid generated during anaerobic fermentation will be collected because it is also an important resource.

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

The action 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.
• (For more information please visit the Mid-term conference - presentation of intermediate results)
• 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 projectIncludes the organization of all events to promote the project.

Apart from organizing specific events such as conferences and training workshops, the focus has been a very active involvement of schools in the area of ​​the 3 common partners.
In particular, there was a great turnout at the 1st edition of "GAMES WITHOUT WASTE" organized by IRSSAT during the European Week for Waste Reduction 2011.
Currently we done meetings with teachers and representatives of the municipalities in order to plan the next editions of GAMES WITHOUT WASTE 2012 and 2013. Specifically, it was decided to launch a Competitions (open to all Italian schools) for comics, short stories, photography, video clips, etc. to promote composting and reduction of waste and separate rubbish collection.

Great participation was also recorded during the Mid-term Conference held in Catania by IRSSAT to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the LIFE Programme, on 16 May 2012, and to present the interim results of the project and launch the opening of the Regional N.O.WA.S.T.E. Network
The event was also attended by Dr. Simona Bacchereti, technical Desk Officer of LIFE Unit in Brussels, and Dr. Agnes Roccato Monitor of the external Team Astrale-Timesis, as well as numerous representatives of municipalities, Sicilian Ato representatives and other stakeholders.



Action 6.2
Training for young people

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’re going to organize n. 6 courses (2 per municipality) for the formation of a total of n. 120 young people aged between 19 and 35 years. Courses will be opened also to young public administrators.
Particular attention will be paid in respect of planning new proposals for local resources sustainable exploitation. Courses will promote planning of new interventions in an integrated co-operation with local administrators to create new employment opportunities and business related to the green economy, and seeking also appropriate tools and financial incentives that would support the creation of cooperatives in this sector and the promotion of local centers for composting.

Partner municipalities will cooperate identifying young people and providing venues where we hold classes.
It has already subscribed a special agreement with a training body for the coordination of all this training program and the start of the first course is scheduled for October 2012. The activities will be completed by November 2013.
The young participants to the first module will be also involved in the statistics survey that will be coordinated by DEI – during Action 5.2