the waste management market | Portugal

1.1 Definition and scope of study

Waste management can be understood as all the technical, administrative and financial activities necessary for the disposal, collection, transport, treatment, recovery and elimination of waste, including the planning and supervision of these operations, as well as the monitoring of storage sites.

Mainland Portugal is divided into 23 urban waste management systems, 12 multi-municipal and 11 inter-municipal . The multi-municipal systems with GEF participation represent 63% of the population and urban waste produced in Portugal. The total generation of municipal waste in Portugal in 2018 was of approximately 4.94 million tonnes ( 4.2% compared to 2017) This corresponds to 505 kg/(inhabitant per year), or a daily production of 1.38 kg per inhabitant. These figures confirm the upward trend in production since 2014.

Community policy developments are pursuing increasingly ambitious targets for separate collection and a drastic reduction in landfill. These trends in waste sorting and reduction (reinforced by legal incentives) can change the market reducing the annual volume of waste, which increases the value of each segment . Players capable of investing massively seem better equipped to respond to this new dynamic.