The Association of Companies for the Recovery and Selection of Municipal Waste Packaging (ASPLARSEM), presented the eighth edition of the IDEAS Contest for the improvement of processes and quality in the recycling of packaging waste, aimed especially at employees of the selection plants and professionals in the sector. In the competition, people or teams integrated within engineering / consulting companies and research centers interested in contributing innovative ideas in

the field of recycling of urban packaging waste.

The competition contemplates the scope of recycling of municipal packaging waste and the themes of the contest are defined as:

1.- Innovation in recycling processes, which includes both technological innovation for recycling and innovation for the quality and efficiency of recycling.

2.- Improvement of processes, prevention and working environment in the selection plants, which includes:

 Improving the efficiency and quality of recycling processes

 Improvement in the prevention of occupational risks in treatment plants

 Improvement of the working environment in treatment plants

For both topics they have been able to participate:

- Employees of packaging waste management plants, from operators to managers of

Processes

- Multidisciplinary teams and technical and innovation departments of companies in the sector established in Spain, associated or not associated with ASPLARSEM and that have created improvement projects and their application in the selection processes or in the prevention of occupational risks, in any of the packaging selection facilities between 2015 and 2020.

- Employees or technical teams of engineering or consulting companies that, according to their

organizations, want to present original ideas.

- Students of the last year of career in university technical academic institutions (engineering,

Faculties of Physics and Chemistry, Environmental Sciences or similar) with final projects on

Innovation in recycling processes.

- Students of master's courses in engineering (environmental, robotics and automation and

similar) with innovative projects.

To assess the quality of the works presented, ASPLARSEM has formed a jury composed of personalities of recognized prestige in the sector. The members of the jury of this edition have been the following:

 Agustín Martínez de la Orden, Director of ABORGASE

 Javier López, Technical Office Manager of ECOEMBES

 Pilar Tur, Technical Director of URBASER

 Javier Vázquez de Prada, Head of Treatment Department of FCC Environment

 Raúl Núñez, Commercial Manager Spain and Portugal of PELLENC

In the section of process improvement, prevention and work environment, the winning project of the VIII IDEAS Contest has been the project of 'CHAMBER OF SUPERVISION OF WORK TEAMS', carried out by Roberto Moyá Torres of the TIRME Packaging plant in Mallorca and José García Fernández Manager of the Deixalles Foundation. The prize of the first classified of this theme is 2,000 euros.