The international community of practice for sustainable urban development Connective Cities sent Gabi Schock, a practitioner at the Düsseldorf municipal utility company, to Sfax in Tunisia for an expert mission on waste management.
Sfax is a major seaport and industrial town located directly by the Mediterranean Sea, 270 km south of Tunis. With 270,000 inhabitants it is the second largest city in Tunisia and an important economic center. To date, there is no separation, processing or rework of construction waste in Sfax. The municipal government of Sfax now wants to deal with the irregular disposal of construction waste and therefore wants to develop strategies for the collection, sorting and reuse of construction waste.
In September 2016 Sfax participated in a Connective Cities Dialogue Event “Planning integrated solid waste management at the municipal level” in Rostock. Here, the municipality of Sfax developed a project idea on the collection, sorting and processing of construction waste. The expert mission in May 2017 was a follow up activity to this dialogue event and was meant to support municipal experts from Sfax with the concrete development of a project plan for this idea and to support its implementation.
In line with this goal, the expert Gabi Schock travelled to Sfax in May 2017 to advise the local experts on the project proposal. Her suggestions included a feasibility study including worst and best case scenarios and a thorough analysis of the costs along the value chain. Furthermore, Mrs Schock suggested building an additional smaller and regulated waste disposal site for remaining residues. This could save space which could be dedicated to higher-value use to help finance the project. An optional additional expert mission focusing on the treatment of construction waste could complement Schock’s recommendations.
A partnership with a German municipality could help to effectively implement the planned project on recycling of construction waste in Sfax. The municipality of Sfax is now looking for example for support on building and demolition permissions with a focus on higher recycling rates of construction waste. The cooperation with a German municipality could also give further insights on German regulations on construction waste, on waste management planning or on concrete public relation activities in the area of demolition waste.
Municipalities and experts who would like to support Sfax in these thematic areas are very welcome to contact us via info(at)connective-cities.net.
18/11/2020 to 20/11/2020
virtuelle Konferenz
The three sustainability dimensions "ecologically sound", "economically successful" and "socially just" are always in…