This agreement reinforces our commitment to promoting competitiveness and innovation among the companies associated with the Cluster, while strengthening the connection between academia and the business community to address the current and future challenges facing the sector.

As part of this collaboration, CREC member companies will have access to talent attraction and development services through internship programmes, participate in academic case studies and projects based on real industry challenges, and benefit from preferential conditions for accessing ESIC Barcelona’s executive and corporate training programmes.

In addition, both organisations will work together to promote activities, events and initiatives aimed at fostering innovation, knowledge exchange and the visibility of the sector. The agreement also includes the promotion of ESIC’s Aster Awards among companies and organisations linked to the Cluster.

CREC will facilitate connections between its member companies and ESIC Barcelona to drive initiatives related to talent, training and the development of collaborative projects, fostering an environment of cooperation and open innovation that contributes to the sustainable growth of the waste management sector.

The agreement was signed at ESIC Barcelona’s facilities with the participation of representatives from both organisations, consolidating a strategic alliance that will create new opportunities for professional, business and academic development within Catalonia’s waste management sector.

This agreement represents another step forward in our commitment to promoting talent, innovation and training as key drivers in advancing towards a more competitive and sustainable circular economy.

L'entrada CREC signs a collaboration agreement with ESIC Barcelona to foster talent, education and innovation. ha aparegut primer a CREC.

As a member of Equiplast’s organizing committee, CREC played an active role in shaping the event’s content and activities, further consolidating its position as a driving force in the transition towards a circular economy.

One of the highlights of CREC’s participation was the presentation, within the Rethinking Plastics space, of a collaborative project developed by four clusters and their respective members. The initiative was presented by Carmen López-Quintana, CREC’s Cluster Manager, together with Ona Bombí, Cluster Manager of the Advanced Materials Cluster of Catalonia (MAV). The project explores new ways to valorize technical textile waste and transform it into materials with potential applications in the packaging sector.

The study underscores the importance of co-creation and collaboration across different value chains to identify opportunities and develop innovative solutions to current sustainability challenges. Cross-sector collaboration is therefore emerging as a key tool for accelerating material circularity and creating new opportunities for industry.

Participation in Equiplast also provided the opportunity to visit several cluster members exhibiting at the event, including Alier and 2GCPR, to learn first-hand about their latest developments and projects related to the circular economy and resource valorization.

Through its participation, CREC continues to foster collaboration and networking among companies, knowledge centers, and organizations from different sectors to drive circular solutions capable of turning today’s waste into tomorrow’s resources.

L'entrada CREC Strengthens Its Commitment to Circularity and Innovation at Equiplast 2026 ha aparegut primer a CREC.

• Name and role within the company

My name is José Luis Gomariz, and I am the CEO of NasApp. As CEO, I oversee the company’s overall direction, defining its strategy, driving project development, and ensuring that our technology addresses real market needs. I also work on building strategic partnerships, managing relationships with clients and institutions, and positioning NasApp as a valuable technological solution for environmental management and odour impact reduction.

• Brief description of the company and its activities

NasApp is a technology company specialized in the intelligent management of odour impact. We develop a multi-layer digital platform that integrates different sources of environmental information, including structured citizen reports, sensor data, meteorological information, and analysis and prediction models based on artificial intelligence.

Within the waste management and circular economy sectors, our activity is particularly focused on facilities such as waste treatment plants, landfills, composting plants, waste recovery facilities, and other operations where odour emissions may affect relationships with the surrounding community. NasApp enables users to visualize, correlate, and analyze all this information within a single platform, combining environmental and operational data with citizen perception at the point of impact. This allows companies to better understand what is happening, anticipate critical events, identify patterns, and make more informed operational decisions.

• Current Challenges and Needs

Directive (EU) 2024/1785, which amends the European framework on industrial emissions, explicitly includes odours within the concept of pollution and reinforces the need to address them as part of the environmental management of industrial activities. This regulatory change represents a significant challenge for sectors such as waste management, but also for technology companies like NasApp: the goal is to transform an issue that has traditionally been difficult to measure, interpret, and manage into objective, traceable, and actionable information for decision-making.

The main challenge is that odour episodes do not depend on a single factor. They are influenced by the operational processes of each facility, meteorological conditions, atmospheric dispersion, environmental sensor data, the location of potential emission sources, and the actual perception of the population affected by the impact. Therefore, having isolated data is not enough; it is essential to integrate, correlate, and transform this information into actionable knowledge.

In this context, NasApp’s challenge is to evolve odour management towards a more preventive, traceable, and business-oriented model. This involves integrating not only external environmental data but also information from each facility’s own operations, enabling a better understanding of odour events, the anticipation of risk situations, and the transformation of data into concrete management decisions.

• Motivation for Joining the Cluster and the Type of Synergies Sought

What motivated us to join CREC was the opportunity to become even more closely connected to the waste management and circular economy sector, an area where odour management is particularly complex and requires solutions tailored to the specific realities of each facility.

For NasApp, it is important to develop technology not only from an external or theoretical perspective, but also through a deep understanding of how the sector actually operates: how facilities function, which processes may generate odour episodes, which internal data are relevant, how decisions are made, and what constraints companies face in their day-to-day activities.

For this reason, the synergies we seek with CREC members are strongly linked to shared learning, technological validation, and the development of practical solutions. We want to collaborate with companies and organizations that can help us better understand the operational complexity of the sector, so that our platform can integrate not only external environmental data but also information specific to each facility, transforming it into actionable knowledge for more preventive, traceable, and effective odour management.

Thank you for being part of CREC!

L'entrada We are CREC: Today, we’d like to introduce… NasApp ha aparegut primer a CREC.

My name is Cristian Vilar, and I am the Managing Director of Tirgi. My responsibility is to ensure that the company operates with operational consistency and technical expertise, making sure that the service we provide to our clients is reliable, continuous, and aligned with regulatory requirements.

Ultimately, my role involves ensuring that everything behind waste management—processes, equipment, facilities, and methodology—is well structured and focused on making our clients’ work easier.

Brief description of the company and its activity

Tirgi is an integrated waste management company with an established track record in Girona and Barcelona, serving both industrial clients and the public sector.

We have a network of 7 facilities from which we manage all types of waste. This allows us to provide solutions with proximity and real execution capacity while adapting to each client to implement solutions tailored to the reality of their operations.

Our work is not limited to collection or treatment; we understand waste management as a complete system that begins with understanding the client’s reality. We then analyze the situation, identify opportunities for operational improvement, and structure the service according to clear criteria: we intervene in the definition of flows, efficient source segregation, logistics, and recovery processes, always with a high level of document control that guarantees traceability.

In addition, we integrate a Special Employment Centre into our activity, which participates in processes such as sorting and handling. This allows us to offer solutions that, in addition to being operationally efficient, also have a positive social impact.

Current challenges and needs

The current context is demanding. On the one hand, there is growing regulatory pressure that requires companies to have greater control and more rigor in waste management. On the other hand, there is a clear need for operational efficiency: reducing logistics costs, optimizing space, and improving internal processes.

Many times, clients are faced with fragmented or poorly structured management, and this generates inefficiencies and risk. Our focus is to bring order and methodology: define clear flows, improve segregation, ensure traceability, and simplify day-to-day management.

There is also a significant challenge in waste recovery. It is increasingly critical to understand waste as a resource and work to reintroduce it into useful circuits whenever viable. This requires technical knowledge, but also operational capacity and consistency in execution.

In summary, we help clients move from reactive management to controlled management, based on expertise and focused on continuous improvement.

Motivation for joining the cluster and the type of synergies sought

The decision to join CREC stems from our desire to be part of an environment where knowledge is shared and the sector is built collectively. We understand that waste management and the circular economy are evolving rapidly, and it is essential to stay connected with other stakeholders who are also working in this field.

We are looking for synergies that go beyond institutional relationships. We are interested in sharing experiences, comparing approaches, and identifying collaboration opportunities that can have a real impact.

It is also a way of reinforcing our way of working: based on proximity, but with rigor. We believe that spaces such as CREC make it possible to move forward with greater expertise and contribute to the further professionalization of the sector.

For us, being part of CREC is not only about being present, but about actively participating and contributing from our experience in industrial environments, which are often the most demanding in terms of management and compliance.

Thank you for being part of CREC!

L'entrada We’re CREC: Today we’re presenting… TIRGI ha aparegut primer a CREC.

The President of the Catalan Waste Cluster (CREC), Elisabet Alier, is featured in a new edition of RETEMA magazine’s “In First Person” section, where she reflects on the challenges and opportunities facing the waste sector in the transition towards a competitive circular economy.

Under the title “From Waste to Resource: The Waste Sector as a Pillar of the Circular Economy Value Chain”, the article advocates for a shift in the traditional perception of waste, encouraging stakeholders to view it as a strategic resource for industry, economic resilience, and sustainability.

In her article, the CREC President highlights that circularity is no longer merely an environmental aspiration but an economic and regulatory necessity. However, she warns that its effective implementation continues to be constrained by structural challenges such as the lack of robust markets for recycled materials, regulatory fragmentation, and the need for incentives that stimulate demand for secondary raw materials.

She emphasizes that the sector’s main challenge today is not technological but economic and organizational. For this reason, she considers it essential to create stable market conditions that enable recycled materials to compete on equal terms with virgin raw materials, while also advancing regulatory harmonization to provide legal certainty and encourage investment.

The Waste Sector: A Key Enabler of Industrial Circularity

The article highlights the role of the waste sector as a connector between waste streams and production chains, between technological innovation and industrial application, and between public policies and business realities.

According to Elisabet Alier, the ability to transform waste into high-quality resources will largely determine the success of the circular economy model. This transformation requires effective collaboration among all actors across the value chain, including producers, waste managers, recyclers, manufacturers, technology centers, and public administrations.

CREC: A Catalyst for the Circular Value Chain

In this context, the President of CREC highlights the Cluster’s role as a platform that connects companies and organizations across the entire value chain. CREC works to foster cooperation, accelerate collaborative projects, and facilitate dialogue between the supply and demand sides of circular materials.

In addition, the organization serves as a hub for knowledge sharing and strategic foresight, helping companies interpret regulatory changes, identify opportunities, and bring the sector’s voice to decision-making forums at both the Catalan and European levels.

The article also underscores the importance of collaborative projects in turning the principles of the circular economy into tangible results, particularly in areas such as material traceability, the circularity of critical raw materials, and circular construction.

Read Elisabet Alier’s full article in RETEMA through the  link below or in the magazine’s  online edition.

L'entrada Elisabet Alier takes center stage in RETEMA’s “In First Person” section, offering her perspective on the strategic role of the waste management sector in driving the circular economy. ha aparegut primer a CREC.

During the assembly, which attracted more than 90 participants, Elisabet Alier reviewed the main milestones achieved throughout 2025. CREC organized more than 33 activities involving over 1,100 participants, promoted sector-focused events, member visits, and networking opportunities, and continued strengthening its commitment to internationalization through initiatives such as the benchmarking trip to Germany and participation in Ecomondo.

The collaborative projects currently being implemented for the 2025–2026 period were also presented. These projects focus on strategic areas such as textile circularity, critical raw material recovery, sludge valorization, efficient collection systems, and the management of social license in ecological transition projects.

One of the highlights of the event was the confirmation of the cluster’s continued growth, which has now reached 111 members and continues to expand its representation across the entire waste management and circular economy value chain.

The assembly also served to approve the 2025 annual accounts, the 2026 budget, the new action plan, and the association’s Code of Ethics, reinforcing CREC’s commitment to transparency, good governance, and the sustainable growth of the sector.

With the screening of a trailer, CREC introduced Veus Circulars, the cluster’s new audiovisual project. Veus Circulars is an educational audiovisual initiative on the circular economy that gives a voice to the different actors across the value chain—public administrations, manufacturers, waste managers, Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs), and industry—to explain how collaboration enables more sustainable and circular models.

Through a series of audiovisual “capsules,” the project showcases real-life examples in which waste is transformed into a resource through design, traceability, innovation, and collaborative work among stakeholders. The official launch of the project will take place soon, and we will share more information shortly.

Innovation Day 2026

The event continued with the Innovation Day 2026, where Pep Martorell reflected on the role of artificial intelligence in strategic decision-making and in anticipating future challenges. The session highlighted how emerging technologies can transform organizations and create new opportunities for innovation within the waste management and circular economy sectors.

The event concluded with a networking session and lunch among members, once again reinforcing CREC’s role as a meeting point for collaboration, innovation, and sector development.

Want to watch the event highlights video? Don’t miss it!

L'entrada CREC Holds Its 3rd General Assembly and Innovation Day 2026 with Strong Attendance. ha aparegut primer a CREC.

This recognition certifies the quality and level of professionalization of the cluster’s management, as well as its commitment to continuous improvement and excellence in the services it provides to its members.

A European recognition of cluster management

The Bronze label is awarded following a thorough European benchmarking process that assesses the cluster’s performance according to internationally standardized criteria. This process evaluates key aspects such as:

• structure and governance
• strategy and funding
• activities and services
• impact and recognition of the cluster

This benchmarking system is widely recognized across Europe and has been applied to more than 1,200 cluster organizations since 2008.

A step forward towards excellence

Achieving the Bronze label places the Catalonia Waste Cluster on the path toward excellence in cluster management, recognizing a solid foundation and identifying opportunities for further improvement.

The benchmarking report particularly highlights:

• a well-established structure and strong governance
• a clearly defined strategy aligned with sector challenges
• significant activity in sector dynamization and service provision

At the same time, it also identifies areas for improvement that serve as a roadmap, on which the cluster team has already started working to further strengthen CREC’s impact, such as the development of business services, internationalization, and the promotion of entrepreneurship.

Commitment to the sector and the territory

This recognition underscores the Cluster’s role as a key agent in transforming the waste sector, promoting innovation, competitiveness, and collaboration among companies, knowledge centers, and public administration.

It also reinforces the cluster’s positioning within the European ecosystem, facilitating new opportunities for international collaboration and access to European initiatives and projects.

At CREC, we will continue working every day to give visibility to the companies that are part of our ecosystem’s value chain and to enhance the competitiveness of the sector in Catalonia.

L'entrada The Catalonia Waste Cluster obtains the European ESCA Bronze Excellence Label ha aparegut primer a CREC.

• Name and role in the company

My name is Silvia Alba Lobo, and I am the Operations Manager at Ekologica Medioambiental.

• Brief description of the company and its activities

Ekologica Medioambiental is a company with more than 25 years of experience specializing in industrial waste management, particularly hazardous waste.

We develop comprehensive solutions covering collection, transportation, storage, and waste recovery, with a strong focus on traceability, regulatory compliance, and sustainability.

Today, we are particularly well positioned in the management of waste related to the automotive sector, such as lithium batteries, lead-acid batteries, and safety systems like airbags. We work to transform these waste streams into valuable resources within a genuine circular economy model.

• Current challenges and needs

One of our main current challenges is responding to the exponential growth of lithium battery waste, which requires highly specialized management from both a technical and regulatory perspective.

To address this, we are working to move further up the value chain by incorporating battery sorting, pre-treatment, and dismantling processes. Our goal is to reduce dependence on third parties while adding greater value to the waste management process.

At the same time, we seek to optimize our operational capacity and adapt to an increasingly demanding regulatory environment, while maintaining the highest standards of safety and traceability.

• Motivation for joining the cluster and the type of synergies sought

Joining CREC reflects our desire to become part of a collaborative ecosystem alongside key players in the sector, where knowledge, experiences, and best practices can be shared.

We aim to create synergies with other companies and organizations to jointly address the challenges of the transition towards more sustainable waste management, stay up to date with market needs, and expand our professional network.

Thank you for being part of CREC!

L'entrada We are CREC: Today we introduce… Ekologica Medioambiental ha aparegut primer a CREC.

• Name and role in the company

My name is Néstor Catalán, and I am one of the founders of PLASTICPeople. I currently serve as CEO of PLASTICPeople Spain, leading the development of the project at both the strategic and operational levels.

As is often the case in an early-stage startup, my role involves being actively engaged across all areas of the company, from production and operations to business development and strategic partnerships.

• Brief description of the company and its activities

PLASTICPeople was founded in Vietnam in 2019 with a clear mission: to provide a creative, participatory, circular, and sustainable solution to the global plastic waste challenge.

The company was founded by Néstor Catalán and Nano Morante.

With the goal of replicating the PLASTICPeople model in Europe and demonstrating its viability within a more demanding European regulatory environment, Néstor Catalán returned to Reus in 2023 and established PLASTICPeople Spain S.L.

PLASTICPeople’s materials are made from 100% plastic waste, primarily post-consumer plastic, with a particular focus on hard-to-recycle waste streams that would otherwise end up in landfills or incineration facilities, such as multi-material plastics, films, and mixed plastics. The result is a range of locally sourced materials that are both 100% recycled and recyclable.

The company transforms all types of plastic waste into versatile, safe, and design-driven materials, mainly producing 100% recycled plastic panels in standard industrial sizes (2.4 × 1.2 meters) and various thicknesses.

PLASTICPeople offers a standard catalogue of materials that, despite being made entirely from plastic waste, consistently deliver reliable mechanical, structural, and aesthetic properties thanks to the company’s unique sorting, formulation, and transformation processes.

• Current challenges and needs

PLASTICPeople continues to work on addressing the challenge of transforming hard-to-recycle plastic waste into viable, competitive, and scalable industrial materials.

We already have a validated technology and process, with a production facility operating in Tarragona. Our current focus is on consolidating the industrial process, developing the market for recycled materials, and generating the traction needed to demonstrate the economic viability of the model.

The project also aims to position these new materials as a genuine alternative to conventional materials, building market confidence and facilitating their adoption across a range of sectors, including construction, furniture, architecture and interior design, and industrial product design.

At the same time, we are working to optimize the production model and increase its scalability, with the goal of significantly expanding our waste transformation capacity and maximizing the project’s environmental and economic impact.

• Motivation for joining the cluster and the type of synergies sought

The motivation behind founding PLASTICPeople stems from the need to address one of today’s major environmental challenges: plastic waste. It was—and still is—time to move beyond talking about the problem and start taking action.

We believe that the global challenge of plastic waste can and should be transformed into a real industrial opportunity.

The initial experience in Vietnam, a context characterized by large volumes of waste and limited collection and recycling systems, allowed us to validate our model for transforming plastic waste into new materials and demonstrate its viability.

Replicating the model in Catalonia is intended to prove its scalability and viability within a more structured industrial and regulatory environment, while also providing access to European markets.

The project is built on a highly collaborative approach, which is why we are seeking synergies with different stakeholders across the ecosystem: industrial companies that can integrate recycled materials into their products, waste suppliers and waste management companies that can ensure a stable supply of raw materials, and technology and creative centers that can contribute to the continuous improvement of our materials and the exploration of new applications.

These collaborations are essential for scaling the model and maximizing its environmental and economic impact.

Thank you for being part of CREC!

L'entrada WE ARE CREC: Today we introduce… PLASTICPeople ha aparegut primer a CREC.

In “WE ARE CREC”, we introduce the latest member companies that have joined this project; the people who help our community grow every day. Discover who they are, what they do, and how they contribute to making CREC a vibrant, creative, and collaborative space.

Today, we introduce…

• Name and role in the company

My name is Víctor Luna Puerto, and I am the Cooperative Business Development Director at Xarxa Ambiental, a cooperative and Special Employment Initiative Centre (CETIS) that works to generate social and environmental impact through business activity.

• Brief description of the company and its activities

Xarxa Ambiental is a second-level cooperative and a Special Employment Initiative Centre (CETIS) specializing in environmental services related to waste management and public spaces.

We provide services such as street cleaning, maintenance of waste containers and litter bins, environmental awareness campaigns through environmental educators, and other key activities that support the efficient operation of waste collection systems and the improvement of urban quality.

In addition, we design and offer our own products related to waste management and public spaces, providing practical solutions tailored to the needs of municipalities and urban service operators.

Our model adds value throughout the waste management chain, not only by improving operational efficiency but also by incorporating a strong social dimension: creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities and those at risk of social exclusion. We understand the circular economy as a model that must integrate environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

• Current challenges and needs

The waste sector is evolving towards more circular, technology-driven, and demanding models, and one of the key challenges is ensuring that this transformation also incorporates social criteria.

At Xarxa Ambiental, we are working to advance in three key areas:

• Promoting responsible public procurement by integrating social clauses that support inclusive employment.
• Improving the efficiency and quality of services related to waste collection and street cleaning through our own service monitoring technology.
• Developing proprietary solutions—both services and products—that address real needs within local communities.

Our goal is to demonstrate that innovation, sustainability, and inclusion are not only compatible but also powerful drivers of competitiveness.

• Motivation for joining the cluster and the type of synergies sought

At Xarxa Ambiental, we connect the ecological transition with social inclusion through a cooperative and business-oriented approach.

As part of the Waste Cluster of Catalonia, we seek to build partnerships with companies, public administrations, and knowledge centers to promote collaborative projects, drive innovation in both services and products, and advance the integration of social criteria within the sector.

We believe that the future of waste management depends on collaboration and a broad vision of circularity, where social impact is also recognized as a key indicator of value.

Thank you for being part of CREC!

L'entrada WE ARE CREC: Today we introduce… Xarxa Ambiental ha aparegut primer a CREC.