The district of Indre Noerrebro was the first area to get started. This waste sorting project is a collaboration between the Indre Noerrebro Local Government Council, different grass roots organisations, a waste collection company and the citizens themselves and is a part of the so-called `Eco-City Project', which is funded by the European Union's Life-Programme.

The target is to have a manual recycling station in each of the district's courtyards which can enable the sorting of up to thirty different types of waste. It is exactly this that makes these projects special. The City of Copenhagen already offers a variety of possibilities for sorting waste at the source but not in this magnitude of types and generally not placed so close to the places where people live. Local residents themselves distribute their household waste into different containers. Recycling stations on courtyard level have so far been established in four blocks.

After the first six months, the fraction of residual waste in the first of the blocks had already fallen to about one third of the original volume. There were few negative reactions from the residents. Now they are talking about making green accounts so as to see what their buildings consume in terms of water, heating, electricity, etc.

Islands Brygge is the other community where sorting at source has begun. Both projects share the same objective: to reduce the amount of incinerated waste as much as possible. The initiative derives from a local Agenda 21 citizens group and the project is being funded by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy and supported by, among others, the Environmental Protection Agency Copenhagen.