Of many solutions for greener homes, compost plays a vital role to combat food waste, reduce methane emissions, as well as provide fertiliser for home gardening. ICLEI Member Porto (Portugal) takes community composting to the next level: the City administration has created group spaces for residents to make compost together.

In two Porto neighborhoods the Municipal Waste Agency LIPOR now gives participating local residents tools to collect organic waste. Collected waste can then be composted on islands. The compost material is used as fertiliser for vertical gardens. Though project participants have access to the compost islands with their own keys, technicians also help to monitor the composting process.

This Porto composting project is one of many innovations taking place under the CityLoops project, which is coordinated by ICLEI Europe.

Speaking about the project, and ICLEI’s role in it, Kaitlyn Dietz, Officer for Circular Economy at ICLEI Europe says ,“CityLoops aims to innovate not only in technical solutions for improved circularity of urban material flows, but also to impact behaviours and decision making frameworks - such as by building regional ecosystems of engaged actors, encouraging citizen participation and ultimately reducing waste and adding value. ICLEI's role as project coordinator is to oversee and manage the relationship between each city's demonstration activities, so that all partners can benefit from the diversity of piloted experiences and developed best practice approaches are disseminated and replicated as far as possible.”

To learn more about Porto’s composting work read on.

More information about Porto's work in CityLoops can be found here.