Catalonia’s Waste Cluster is born to promote a sector with a €10 billion turnover, which amounts to 41,000 workers

• The new cluster, driven by the ACCIÓ agency, of the Ministry of Business and Labour, and by the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, through the ARC (Catalonia’s Waste Agency), has been created to boost the competitiveness of the sector’s companies, to promote internationalisation and to encourage innovation and R&D in this area.
• The organisation brings together all the companies in the waste management sector that have their registered office or economic activity of added value in Catalonia, including the entire value chain.

The Minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, Teresa Jordà i Roura, accompanied by the secretary for Business and Competitiveness and ACCIO’s managing director, Albert Castellanos i Maduell, presided over the inauguration of the new waste cluster this Wednesday, held at the Cosmocaixa Science Museum in Barcelona, where the sector’s main companies and agents gathered. In total, according to ACCIÓ’s data, the Catalan waste sector is made up of 693 companies with a total turnover of €10 billion who bring together some 41,000 workers.

The new cluster’s goal, driven by ACCIÓ – the agency for the competitiveness of the company of the Ministry of Business and Labour-, and the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, through Catalonia’s Waste Agency (ARC), is to establish itself as a driving force for the sector’s companies’ competitiveness. By means of this new organisation, we seek to drive joint work between all its members and the waste sector’s entire value chain, to promote internationalisation, to encourage innovation and R&D in this area, in addition to recruitment and inter-cluster activity, amongst others.

During her speech, Councillor Jordà explained that “the creation of this new cluster opens the door to driving and working on circular economy projects in many sectors, by efficiently connecting waste producers and the value chain that manages them. The push for circular transformation requires a global vision que involves close collaboration between all the Generalitat’s ministries and economic and social stakeholders in Catalonia, such as professional associations, research and technological centres, universities, professional organisations, municipalities, councils, tertiary sector, and, obviously, the business network”, affirmed Jordà.

For his part, the secretary for Business and Competitiveness and ACCIO’s managing director, Albert Castellanos i Maduell, highlighted that this new entity “will play a key role in Catalonia in accelerating the fight against climate change, in driving the sustainability of the production network and in the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy. Accelerating this transition not only offers business opportunities, but also improves Catalonia’s competitive position”, he reiterated. In this regard, he assured that the new cluster “will certainly make Catalonia play a primary role in this change in the productive consumption and waste management model in which we are immersed, taking advantage of the synergies inherent in cluster dynamics”.

Waste is a sector undergoing constant transformation, a context in which the transformation capacity of the companies and entities that are part of it will be key, as they face new global challenges and changes because of new regulations and public planning. Most companies involved, 86%, are waste operators, while other companies are specialised in the production of capital goods and treatment technology, infrastructure and facility construction, consulting, engineering and control and analysis.

In this way, the new cluster will bring together all the companies in the waste management sector that have their registered office or economic activity of added value in Catalonia, including the entire value chain. The initiative will also work together with environmental agents in the waste sector, both in innovation and research and in the area of training, as is the case with consultancies, engineering firms, associations and guilds, or even companies dedicated to other sectors of activity. The new cluster is part of the drive for a green and circular economy, which encourages, amongst others, waste reduction and the efficient use of resources.

The new waste cluster’s 30 founding member companies are Alfametal, Alier, Aquambiente, Circular Economy Solutions, Autorec, el Centre de Gestió Mediambiental (CGM), CLD, Comercial Riba Farré, Datambient, Eurecat, la Fundació Formació i Treball, el Gremi de Recuperació de Catalunya, Griñó, Grup Altadill, Grup Celsa, Inèdit, Leitat, Moba, Picvisa, prewaste, prezero, Promsa, Reverter Industries, Romero Polo, Ros Roca, Scrap Point, Simplr, Tradebe, la Universitat de Vic, Venvirotech and Veolia. These companies’ activity represents a large part of the value chain of Catalonia’s waste sector.

A cluster is a group of companies (SMEs, multinationals, and start-ups) and environmental agents (universities and technological centres) from a certain economic area that share resources, generate synergies and plan internationally. It is an instrument that makes it possible to improve the competitiveness of its members based on the development of joint transformative projects and the definition of strategic challenges for their sector.

In Catalonia, the cluster policy started 30 years ago. The Catalonia Clusters programme, driven by the Generalitat through ACCIÓ, which currently incorporates 26 Catalan clusters that bring together more than 2,600 companies and associated agents with a turnover  of more than €70 billion. By type, the cluster members represent a wide array of stakeholders, including SMEs (68%); large companies (10%); research centres, universities, and educators (9%); start-ups (8%); and environmental agents (5%). Through this initiative, the aim is to help them focus on their strategy, co-finance strategic projects, organise trips to reference ecosystems to undertake international benchmarking and enter into partnerships between Catalan clusters or with international entities, among others.

Source: govern.cat