Background The European Union Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) requires Member States to organise strategies to reduce biodegradable municipal waste disposed of in landfills to 75% of 1995 amounts by 2010. Some organic materials, such as newspaper and office paper, already have a high recovery rate. However, other organic materials, such as garden trimmings, food scraps and certain grades of paper that have a high potential for recovery, are still being sent to landfills. Composting garden and kitchen waste is one way to minimise the organic waste sent to these landfills. Moreover, this compost can be subsequently used as a fertiliser for house plants and garden soil. Objectives The LIFE project was part of a broader Integrated Waste Management Project (PEDSIRS). The main goal of PEPSIRS is to promote the source separation of recyclable materials (paper, glass, plastics, metals and batteries, etc). The main objective of the LIFE project, however, was to reduce the amount of biodegradable organic waste being disposed in the landfill situated in Seixal. This will be achieved by involving three different target groups (local authorities, households and schools) in the source separation of organic materials that could be composted. To this end, the project was to encourage community composting at three levels: a) municipal-composting of organic waste from the municipality of Seixal’s public gardens in a specific municipality composting unit, b) backyard composting by households and c) small-scale composting at schools. The main social goal of the project was to raise public awareness about environmental issues by educating and stimulating the community to consider waste as a material with potential. Finally, through this project, the city of Seixal expected to be able to achieve the goals set by the EU landfill Directive. Results Overall, the project achieved its objectives. A community system of composting was implemented across the three community sectors – schools, households and the municipality itself. Of the three groups, the schools were the most successful. A total of 26 schools participated in the project - some 53% of the schools in the municipal region. This amounted to the involvement of some 2,500 students of different ages. In the end, a full 80% of these schools managed to produce compost and use it. Around 900 composting boxes were distributed to households – just under the 1,000 boxes that were planned to have been distributed. In something of a drop-off from the high standard set by the schoolchildren, some 45% of these households managed to produce compost and use it. However, in 64% of the cases, the compost analysed was of very good quality. A municipal composting unit was built to treat organic waste from the public gardens and municipal collection and to reduce the amount of organic waste going to the landfill by 3,070 tonnes/year. In the first year, and due to delays faced in its construction and the availability of some equipment, only 173m3 of waste was collected and distributed to ten compost heaps. Six of these in turn produced 57.7m3 of compost (a reduction of 2/3), which was then used by citizens and in the public gardens. The project carried out a study to evaluate what total reduction in waste that would otherwise be sent to a landfill could be achieved. As the city council must pay a landfill tax per disposed tonne, a significant reduction in waste offers significant financial savings for the municipality as well. The study found that it is possible to reduce organic waste disposed in landfill by 3,000 tonnes a year. If this is achieved, taking into account a 100% recovery rate of municipal gardening wastes, the city council would save around €20,000 a year as a result. In reality, the project collected 173.2m3 (equivalent to 51.96 tonnes) of waste, which represented a savings of €700.90. The 57.73m3 (39.26 tonnes) of compost produced from this was worth €3,958.87. In terms of employment, the project required, over the course of its two-year duration, six part-time employees and two full-time environmental technician-managers. Some of these collaborators will be invited to work permanently for the municipality services after the end of the project. Every new school year, two new cycles of the compost process will be carried out and additional schools will become involved in the process. The 93 composting bins not yet delivered yet were to be distributed amongst homeowners. The Seixal Municipality has also committed to the acquisition of more composting bins for new citizens who are interested. The training of teachers in composting processes will continue, as will the actual composting by homeowners in their back yards and pupils at school. The collection of waste to the Municipal Composting Unit is already an established municipal activity, as is the use and distribution of the compost produced there. A ‘Pedagogic Centre’ for composting was built and is the focus of several composting activities and programming. The project developed a partnership with a group of universities to carry out analyses of the quality of the compost produced. Finally, one concrete example of the project’s continuity is the organisation of the “Festa da Compostagem” (Festival of Composting) held after the end of the project to celebrate composting and the project’s completion.