Red Bee underground containers, from Lasso™, are already installed in Santo Tirso, as part of the pilot project for selective collection of bio-waste underway in this municipality, covering the city center of Santo Tirso and Vila das Aves. Red Bee containers have an aesthetic and format with little impact on the landscape, provide easy access, are made of stainless steel (more appropriate and resistant for this type of waste) and are more functional, given their drum lid with conditioned access per card.
Remember that bio-waste is composed of biodegradable organic materials, such as vegetables, fruit peels, meat, fish, raw or cooked eggs, leftover bread and cakes, coffee grounds, tea bags and paper napkins, as well as waste garden (leaves, branches and grass).
At this moment, all 13 Red Bee systems are installed and prepared for the voluntary deposition of bio-waste by residents. The new Red Bee containers are identified with brown signage, specific to bio-waste, and equipped with an intelligent access control system, which works with cards made available to residents by the city council.
Residents who join the project receive a membership kit consisting of a seven-liter bucket intended for depositing bio-waste (suitable for kitchens and easily washable in the dishwasher), an information leaflet providing advice on which waste should be deposited and which ones should not be placed in the container and a card to access the container.
The objective is for residents to be able to separate bio-waste in their homes into buckets and deposit them later in new containers identified for this purpose. It is important to note that conditional access to the containers is carried out to ensure that the waste deposited does not contain contaminants – contamination could jeopardize the viability of valuing the waste for the production of compost and, thus, returning it to the earth and being reused.