11,608 people, the majority of them schoolchildren, participated during the school year 2018-19 in the activities offered by the Maresme Consortium for Municipal Solid Waste Treatment through their environmental education programme, which includes guided tours of the Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery, as well as workshops at schools and events such as fairs and environmental conferences. This figure represents a 24% increase in participation on the previous year, and 442% with respect to 2013, the year in which the activities were started, meaning that it is one of the most popular environmental education programmes in Catalonia. 

 

In total, during the school year 2018-2019, 363 standard activities took place (half were visits to the plant and the other half workshops at schools), with 9,925 people taking part. Additionally 1,683 people participated in the 12 workshops “Ludobrossa” and “Encajamos buenas prácticas” carried out during different programmed events and largely organised by Town Halls. The majority of the participants were pupils between the ages of 10 and 16, with 3,310 from the first ESO course, 1,957 from the higher Primary course, and 1,478 from the second ESO course. There have also been visits from other groups (adults, higher education students, special needs education groups, associations, leisure education specialists, younger children, training courses etc). 

 

Not only has there been a significant increase in participation, but the content and quality of the activities have also improved. There is now more direct contact with   family groups, thanks to the workshops carried out in public, at fairs, or during environment or science week. Much of the audiovisual material that the visitors see during the tour of the plant has been updated, and during this year a new introductory video has been made, explaining the reality of waste collection and the role that the Centre plays. At the end of the visit there is another new video, simultaneously projected onto the three screens of “The green sphere”, which presents the concept of the circular economy to a young audience.

 

The vast majority of the visitors are from the Maresme county (8,208), followed by the Vallès Oriental (1,441) and the Barcelonès (1,200). Aside from these areas, during the 2018-2019 course, there have also been visits from places such as Santa Cristina d’Aro, Olot, Sabadell, Sant Cugat, Sabadell or Sant Feliu de Llobregat.

 

For the school year 2019-2020, the Consortium wants to increase the promotion of the activities and visits to the plant among collectives and entities in the county, and study the possibility of the creation of a new activity centred on the circular economy. This will coincide with the beginning of the construction, from 2020, of the new Maresme Circular Park in the Mata-Rocafonda industrial estate in Mataró.  In terms of quality, the Consortium aims to maintain the high rating that the programme has had from participants during the 2018-2019 course, which was 9 out of 10.