Zero Waste Europe is happy to introduce the blog series “Meet our members”. Through this series of monthly interviews, we want to give you a chance to get to know our members and the work they are doing.

Meet Alba Cabrera from Rezero, Spain

Hi Alba, can you give us a brief introduction to Rezero?

Hello!! Rezero – Waste Prevention and Responsible Consumption Foundation – is a non-profit independent organisation with more than 15 years of experience (born in 2005). In Rezero, we aim at changing the current production and consumption model towards a zero waste strategy. We promote responsible consumption and waste prevention actions, by networking with social and economic stakeholders. We develop strategic campaigns, plans and policies for waste prevention for municipalities and compile research and studies. We also act as a positive lobby promoting zero waste practices in Catalonia. 

We want to change the current production and consumption model towards a Zero Waste Strategy.

We are based in Barcelona (but we have an office in Mallorca too!) and, although most of our projects and actions take place in Catalonia and in the Balearic Islands, we also work at in Spain and at the European level.

Rezero’s team consists of ten motivated people from different backgrounds but all passionate about waste prevention. And we are particularly proud to be 90% female.

How long have you been in the field and what got you into (Zero) Waste?

I have always identified myself as a nature lover and an ecologist so I couldn’t have picked a better degree than Environmental Sciences. At college, I got very interested in waste management and prevention. This interest drove me to study environmental engineering. During my masters, I got the opportunity to do an internship at Rezero and to work on the implementation of a Deposit Return System (DRS) pilot project in Catalonia. Since then, I have been working with waste prevention and climate change. Now, I can say I’m totally addicted to the zero waste world.

What is your current role in the organisation?

I’m the Research Studies Coordinator. I am constantly gathering and analysing data. The reports resulting from this research aim to gather and share knowledge in order to promote zero waste practices at the local, regional or national level.

Tell us more about one ongoing campaign/activity you’re working on?

At the moment, we are working on a new campaign in favour of a new Catalan Waste Law, which focuses on waste prevention. We try to involve all the different stakeholders to work together towards zero waste. In a similar vein, we will soon launch our new campaign “Plastic Health”. As part of this campaign, we have analysed the urine of 20 important personalities from the medicine, culture, sport and ecology sector and we’ve detected a lot of plastic in the samples.

If there was one thing that you would like your organisation to be known for, what would it be?

I would like Rezero to be known for diving transformative, fresh and powerful campaigns and projects; such as Catalonia free from plastic bags, Conscious Consumption, Rewine or Plastic Health campaigns.

How would you describe the growth of the Zero Waste movement in your country?

Although the zero waste movement is growing and becoming trendy in Spain, there is still huge potential for improving waste prevention practices in our country. In  Catalonia alone, we generate 3.8 million tonnes of waste each year (1.39 kg per capita a day) and the amount of waste generated is still heavily correlated to gross domestic product. Also, separate collection has been frozen for a long time at under 40%.

However, we hope that the new Catalan Waste Law, based on waste prevention and EPR principals, will be approved soon following the lead of the new European legislative framework and the Balearic Islands and Navarra Waste Laws.

You can find more about Rezero, and their work here.