This weekend, Portimão Marina will host the final leg of the Portuguese Environment Agency’s (APA) summer awareness tour, featuring an interactive campaign designed to encourage residents and visitors to correctly sort household waste during the busiest months of the year.

This initiative is part of the national “Let’s separate the waste” campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the environmental importance of recycling and responsible waste disposal. After visiting six districts across the country, the traveling exhibition concludes its summer tour in Portimão; it will be open on Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Saturday from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, and Sunday from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

At the heart of the campaign is a mobile exhibition housed in a custom truck, offering visitors a range of interactive activities. These include a quiz testing knowledge on waste sorting, a simulator that assesses sustainable consumption habits, workshops for creating art from recycled materials, and games aimed at families and children. The traveling exhibition also features a thought-provoking installation known as the “mural of excuses,” which displays the most common reasons people give for not sorting their waste; the goal is to challenge visitors to rethink their habits and encourage participation in recycling.

The campaign focuses specifically on the summer period, when waste generation reaches its peak in Portugal. According to the APA, over 1.8 million tons of urban waste were generated between June and September 2025, with the month of August alone accounting for more than 480,000 tons.

The agency encourages families and tourists to continue separating recyclable materials even when away from their usual routines, emphasizing that increased consumption during the summer season should not lead to less effective recycling practices or greater environmental impacts.

José Pimenta, president of the APA, stated that, contrary to popular belief, summer is consistently the period when Portugal generates the highest volume of waste. “Trash doesn’t go on vacation during the summer,” he said, adding that the campaign aims to engage communities across the country in adopting more responsible waste management habits.

Stretching from Braga to Portimão, this marks the final stop of this year’s traveling exhibition, but the “Let’s separate the waste” campaign will continue through the end of 2026.

Source