A new toolkit has been released to help cities build more successful waste management strategies.

The toolkit, titled “A guide on urban metabolism and participatory processes for more efficient urban waste policies,” can inspire urban waste agents – from decision makers to waste companies – to improve urban sustainability by interpreting waste issues and policies in innovative ways.

The document addresses a wide range of stakeholders, and includes a corpus of 70 best practices. These cover waste topics relevant for cities; a chapter on urban metabolism and its implementation tools; and a detailed section on stakeholder engagement processes.

The toolkit was released as part of UrbanWINS, a three-year project funded by the Research and Innovation Programme Horizon 2020 that has studied how cities consume resources, materials and products, and how they get rid of waste. The project has developed and tested innovative plans and solutions aimed at improving waste prevention and management.

The goal of this toolkit is to encourage towns and cities in Europe and beyond to replicate the innovative UrbanWINS solutions and approach, and to build upon them.

The waste policy toolkit is free and can be downloaded here.

To learn more about UrbanWINS, click here.