On Saturday, 23 November, more than 80 thousand people attended one of the most anticipated moments of the year: the inauguration of the Christmas lights. But after the party, it was the turn of the Urban Hygiene teams to clean the places where hours before thousands of people had fun. An often invisible but essential work, which involved the commitment of around 30 urban hygiene workers, with the collaboration of the parish council of Santa Maria Maior took place.

A social media post shared by President of Lisbon City Council, reads “Every day our teams walk the streets of Lisbon on a mission to help keep the city clean. Please help us by not leaving rubbish out of the bins and respect the rubbish collection schedule.”

Adding “The collection of green waste has arrived in the Guarda-Mor neighbourhood in Telheiras which covers about 50 homes, with the collection taking place once a week on Friday mornings. Over the past few weeks, the Urban Hygiene teams have been in the area to raise awareness among residents and deliver containers for the disposal of glass recycling. Over the past few days, the Urban Hygiene teams have been in the area to raise awareness among residents and deliver containers for the disposal of green waste.

There are already 8 parishes in Lisboa that have green waste collection: Alvalade, Ajuda, Alcântara, Belém, Beato, Benfica, Olivais and now Lumiar, in the area of Quinta do Guarda-Mor.

The objective of the Lisboa Chamber is to extend these circuits to areas with the highest production of glass recycling, where collection only takes place by request.”


New measures

Additionally, more recently the President of Lisbon Câmara, Carlos Moedas, explained the five measures they are adopting regarding urban hygiene in Lisbon in a recent social media video:

  1. In the last 3 years, we have increased the available ways to support urban hygiene, hiring 400 people in just three years to collect more rubbish. 25 motoristas, 79 new cars.
  2. We are picking up a lot more rubbish in Lisbon, this year, compared to last year, we have already picked up 8,000 tons of rubbish.
  3. In 2025, we are going to invest 38 millon euros in Urban hygiene in Lisbon. Thats 65% more than last year and 67% more in this mandate compared to the last mandate.
  4. We have inaugurated three new Urban Hygiene units and created 17 new rubbish collection circuits in Lisbon.
  5. We have approved the additional subsidies for the workers who are working in the Urban Hygiene teams, who deserved this increase and have asked for it for many years.

To add to this, the Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, shared, on social media that “Urban hygiene workers have been tireless, and we can only thank them for the effort they make every day. However, the solution for an even cleaner city depends on all of us, with more active and responsible civic participation. Clean Lisbon counts on everyone.”

Innovation

Rádio Observador shared an interesting interview with the Director of the Urban Hygiene Department of the Lisbon City Council, whereby he explained how innovation and the use of technology has helped in the collection of rubbish in the city.

Prior to the beginning of the interview, it was made clear that Lisbon has been the European Capital of Innovation for the last year and that at the recent Web Summit, the new capital was announced as Torino. However, the work for Lisbon does not stop there.

Credits: Supplied Image; Author: CML;

Journalist Maria João Martins asked the Director of the Urban Hygiene Department, Nuno Vinagre, how innovation has helped the Câmara achieve a cleaner Lisbon, in response, the Director of the Urban Hygiene Department started by saying, “It is important to say that urban hygiene and public services are in fact essential to ensure the healthy and sustainable functioning of cities. Any investment in technology, infrastructure and configuration are fundamental for cities to offer a clean and safe environment for their inhabitants.”

Adding that, “Technological innovation is fundamental in modern times and contributes to an improvement in efficiency, a reduction of costs and personalising people’s experience, whether they are a visitor or they are working and living in the city.”

“Above all, competitiveness in this open market in this increasingly digitised world, with increasingly demanding consumers, innovation brings us competitive advantages and helps us to better meet the expectations of our citizens.”

With regards to the implementations that Lisbon Câmara has made, Nuno Vinagre explained "We have been involved in recent years, in the implementation of monitoring systems that give us concrete information so that we can make the necessary adjustments to the collection system in the city at residence level."

“As an example, we have an electronic motorisation system implemented in all our vehicles and we have sensors on public roads, intelligent bins, and we have operational indicators that help us make decisions about where and when we should reinforce our circuit routes... These are just a few examples where technology is fundamental in helping us."

The interview concluded with Nuno Vinagre being asked about historic neighbourhood in Lisbon, such as Alfama and Castelo, which 10 years ago did not have many inhabitants but now have a constant number of visitors and occupants living there. He responded with “A significant change has been experienced in some neighborhoods in the city of Lisbon, specifically historic neighborhoods, where AL accommodation was notable, due to this change we have adapted to meet the required needs of the various areas."

Author

Following undertaking her university degree in English with American Literature in the UK, Cristina da Costa Brookes moved back to Portugal to pursue a career in Journalism, where she has worked at The Portugal News for 3 years. Cristina’s passion lies with Arts & Culture as well as sharing all important community-related news.

Cristina da Costa Brookes