Joao Vaz

Background

About Joao Vaz

Since 1998 I have been working with waste management and urban cleaning. Waste it’s not only a job but a passion and the sense of making the world a better place to live. My academic background, Mechanical Eng, works on my favour, waste management, from which angle you look at it, requires “machinery” and “energy”. So, I feel comfortable projecting Composting facilities; Recycling parks; Waste collection systems;…etc. And, that’s what I have been doing with ECOGESTUS since 2005. Not only in Portugal, but also in São Tomé and Principe, Mozambique Working with municipalities across the country, from north (e.g. Viana do Castelo) to south (e.g. Loulé) is my main activity, withtin the following range: • Municipal waste planning; • Waste characterization; • Pay-As-You-Throw - PAYT systems; • Composting domestic and communitarian • Extended Producer Responsibility • Tariffs and Technical review/Monitoring From a very personal point of view I enjoyed to be part of the team that authored the São Tomé and Princípe National Waste Management Plan (2010 and 2018), as well as Nampula (second Mozambique city, pop. 1,2 million) first waste characterization and municipal plan (2018-2023). Working in Africa can be rewarding as well as frustrating, as there is so much untapped potential. In my early days, back in 1998, I learned a lot from a traineeship in Ahlen, Germany, at INFA, with Dieter Oelgemoeller, prof. Gellenbeck. In Africa, Simão Dias has been my guiding light, teaching me a lot on how to deal with people and face technical constraints; Maite Mendizabal introduce me to São Tomé in 2009 and paved the way to change there, investing with TESE in recycling and composting plants. José Silva Ferreira I also want to thank for pioneering with us the first composting plant. Célia Dias Ferreira, from Aveiro University in different waste project, as well as with Filipa Bessa (MAREFOZ) in assessing marine debris at the coastline, here in Figueira da Foz.