Environmental group Quercus said in a statement that, under the current system, it is “an almost impossible task” to achieve recycling targets, such as reducing the proportion of waste that goes to landfill to 10 percent by 2035 (from percent now) and increasing recycling to 65 percent.


In its statement, Quercus advocates “more and better education and information” and calls on candidates in the European elections taking place this month to include action on recycling, waste separation and environmental awareness campaigns in their electoral programmes.


Three months ago Quercus launched a mobile application dubbed ‘Wastapp’, to help in the management of domestic waste. According to the organisation, people in Portugal are still “searching for information that allows [them] to properly separate rubbish produced at home every day”.


After three months of the app’s use, Quercus states, the most searched-for words relating to information about what to do with waste, were “CD” and “DVD”, followed by others such as “dressings”, “blades”, “paint” and “medicines “.


Each day on average every person in Portugal produces 1.32 kg of waste, currently only 16.5 percent of waste produced ends up in recycling bins.