A Citizen Science project to promote recycling in urban gardens

The European Union, in its legislation on waste, tells us that we must selectively separate bio-waste (which is food waste from garbage) before December 31, 2023 and that we must increase the recycling of our waste to 55% by 2025. Achieving these goals requires the active collaboration of citizens and a strong involvement of local administrations. The Citizen Science project RECICOMPHUERTOS seeks to show the benefits and encourage the use of compost or mulch made from organic waste separated selectively by citizens. This compost is of high quality, because impurities such as packaging or glass have been previously removed through a careful selection by the neighbors, and it will be used in urban gardens that carry out ecological agriculture and in school gardens. The project includes conducting small trials or tests in several plots of the social garden of Utrera del Parque del Quinto Centenario and IES Ibn Jaldún of Dos Hermanas and other schools in Utrera. The tests are being done with vegetables commonly consumed and are being carried out by members of the Association of Ecological Urban Gardeners of Utrera and by students of the schools under the supervision of their teachers. The participation of these groups, which show great involvement and interest, together with the researchers, the City Council of Utrera and the company Agricultura y Ensayo SL give this study its participatory and Citizen Science character. The collaboration of these groups, in an environment that escapes the traditional concept of research that is done only in the research laboratory, aims to achieve a dissemination of scientific and technical methodology in reference to waste and its recycling in agriculture that reaches not only the participants but the general public. Among the activities planned, there will be experimental workshops for gardeners and students from other localities, dissemination days of the project, videos and tasting days of organic products from urban gardens and explanatory manuals will be prepared on the correct use of compost in urban gardens.

As a scientific part, the project has the participation of the Soilplant group and the Outreach group of the Institute of Natural Resources and Agrobiology (IRNAS) of CSIC and Professor Sabina Rossini of the Department of Plant Biology of the University of Seville. Aborgase and the public company Basura Sierra de Cádiz, which belongs to the Mancomunidad de municipios de la Sierra de Cádiz, have also collaborated with the compost used in the studies. The Mancomunidad Sierra de Cádiz is already carrying out the selective collection of biowaste and its composting plants are a reference in terms of innovation and quality and are part of the pilot project “Circular Economy Sierra de Cádiz” partly subsidized through ITI funds and European funds.

The head of the project team, Rafael López Núñez, from IRNAS-CSIC, indicates that the use of compost in vegetable gardens is a clear example of circular economy, where the waste from our consumption will end up as raw material again for food production. And this recycling implies many benefits, such as more employment at the local level, less landfill fees that municipalities will have to pay, greater recovery of other components of the waste and what is known as “carbon sequestration in the soil” which results in healthier soils and a reduction of greenhouse gases that are responsible for climate change.

The RECICOMPHUERTOS project “We recycle compost from selectively collected urban waste in urban gardens”, will run until the end of June 2025, and is carried out with the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Ministry of Universities, which finance the actions with 24,000 € out of a total budget of 81,390 €.

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Referencia: FCT-22-18403
Modalidad: D.1 Ciencia Ciudadana
Título: Reciclamos el compost de residuos urbanos de recogida selectiva en los huertos urbanos (RECICOMPHUERTOS)
Solicitante: AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
Localidad: Madrid 
Institución: Centro de investigación
Carácter: Pública
Fecha de inicio del periodo de ejecución: 01/07/2023
Fecha final del periodo de ejecución: 30/06/2025

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