Fem Que Circuli: The Circular Economy Turning Waste Into Opportunities

What do a used mattress, old curtains and a rickety hotel chair have in common? For Fundació Deixalles, they’re all valuable resources about to be given a new life. This is down to ‘Fem que Circuli’, a project that has turned simple waste management into a springboard for social and environmental transformation in Mallorca and Ibiza.

The initiative, awarded for its social and environmental impact, proposes a pioneering circular economy model applied to the HORECA industry (hotels, restaurants and catering) and the property industry. It does this by collecting free furniture, textiles, small household appliances, decorations and crockery that would otherwise end up in landfill or incineration. All this material is then examined, restored and transformed—often through creative upcycling processes—in workshops run by people at risk of social exclusion.

The project not only avoids tonnes of waste, but also restores some of the economic and social value of these objects. In 2022, thanks to the collaboration of 130 hotels that have signed agreements with Deixalles, 117 tonnes of reusable material were collected. Of this material, 97% could be reused, thus avoiding the emission of 692 tonnes of CO₂. Moreover, 454 pieces of furniture were reconverted into unique objects, many of which have been put to use again by tourism companies themselves.

But the most significant data relates to its social benefits. In 2022 alone, the project led to six recruitment contracts and trained fourteen people in work, social and technical skills related to upcycling. Since its launch, it has created seven jobs, three of which have been filled by people in vulnerable situations.

Beyond these numbers, ‘Fem que Circuli’ demonstrates that sustainability and inclusion can and should go hand in hand. "This recognition reinforces our belief that the ecological transition must go hand in hand with social justice", said Francesca Martí, Director of Fundació Deixalles, after receiving the award from the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030.

The foundation, created in 1986, has been working for decades to promote social and professional inclusion through waste management. Its model, based on solidarity economy principles, fits in perfectly with new regulatory frameworks that promote circularity in Balearic tourism, such as the ‘Llei de Residus’ (Waste Law) of 2019 and the ‘Llei de Turisme’ (Tourism Law) of 2022.

The director of Deixalles insists, however, that the project’s potential has yet to be realised: "We want to keep creating inclusive employment and move towards a more local, circular economy, but we need to expand our infrastructure: more warehouses, more lorries, more outlets". This explains their call for public authorities to support the expansion of the model.

In the meantime, ‘Fem que Circuli’ has already shown that what we throw away can come back... and become the future.