In 2025, around 82% of the waste produced in the Azores was directed to valorisation operations, according to Alonso Miguel, the regional Secretary for Environment and Climate Action.
Alonso Miguel, who on Friday presided on Terceira Island at the launch of the second edition of the initiative “Menu Separar Sempre,” stated that the region’s rate of preparation for reuse and recycling had “risen again, reaching 49%,” placing the archipelago “in a position of national prominence.”
The head of the Environment portfolio, cited in a press release, referred to landfill disposal “also registering a historic reduction, now representing only 18% of the total urban waste produced, when in 2020 it was 44.9%.”
“This initiative, in partnership with Novo Verde, ‘Menu Separar Sempre,’ directed at the HORECA channel [hotels, restaurants and similar], already in its second edition, constitutes yet another excellent means of environmental awareness, aligned with the objectives set forth in the Azores Agenda for the Circular Economy,” the official emphasized.
Still according to Alonso Miguel, “the emphasis on environmental education and literacy has been a priority in the Azores’ Government actions, through offering school environmental awareness activities, regional meetings of Environmental Education and annually launched thematic campaigns.”
That emphasis, he added, “has been one of the levers of success in the progress observed in waste management in the Azores, confirmed once again by the results available in the 2025 Annual Urban Waste Report, recently published.”
Alonso Miguel also highlighted that the initiative “Menu Separar Sempre” fits within the objectives of the Azores’ Circular Economy Agenda and the Azores’ 20+ Strategic Programme for Waste Prevention and Management (PEPGRA 20+).
Moreover, it is reinforced by the new legal regime for waste prevention and management of the Azores, recently approved, instruments that “reflect an integrated vision based on prevention, reuse, recycling and valorisation of resources,” he added.
Alonso Miguel acknowledged, however, “that legislation alone is not sufficient to materialize the transition to a circular economy model.”
“As true changes happen when day-to-day decisions accompany this vision, whether when a business properly separates its waste, when a municipality invests in the quality of selective collection, when a company redesigns a packaging to facilitate its recycling or a citizen understands that separating waste does not represent the end of a process, but rather the beginning of a new cycle of value,” he said.
The campaign “Menu Separar Sempre: HORECA Channel” was developed exclusively for the Azores, by Novo Verde in collaboration with the Government of the Azores, aiming at the correct separation of waste.
For this purpose, eco-bag kits will be distributed in more than 900 commercial spaces across the nine Azorean islands.
