Garbage cans, which used to be little more than just a bucket with a lid, have over the past few years become increasingly complex receptacles with two, three and sometimes up to four different compartments. Recycling is to blame - or rather to thank. Spanish families are more environmentally conscious than ever, and the task of sorting out a household's trash to minimise its negative impact on the environment requires at least four different garbage cans: one for glass, another for plastic and metal, a third for paper and cardboard and the last for organic remains. This system enables recycling plants to transform most of our trash into new, usable objects. It isn't, however, enough to ensure that a society that produces more garbage than ever reduces or at least limits its ever-growing polluting potential. Indeed, around us remain batteries, cell phones, radios, computers, light bulbs, CDs, DVDs and a long list of other products that are not so easy to dispose of.

Unlike previous generations, Spaniards today rarely reuse things and instead tend to throw them away once they have fulfilled the specific purpose for which they were created. And this is reflected by figures. From 1990 to 2004 the amount of trash generated per capita by Spain's urban dwellers grew 62.2 percent according to the Environment Ministry. In 2004 alone Spain produced a total of 22 million tons of urban waste. Almost half of that amount - 49.2 percent - ended up in registered dumps, 31.7 percent went to composting plants, 9.1 percent was completely recycled, 6.7 percent was incinerated to produce energy and 3.3 percent ended up in illegal dumps. As such, the amount of trash that ended up in a regular or illegal dump was larger than that which was recycled.

"We don't recycle enough," says a source at the Environment Ministry. And the fact is that the blame for this is well spread out among the entire population. Producers are responsible for offering disposal and treatment mechanisms for the products they manufacture, but if there is no law to force them to recycle they tend to look the other way and ignore the problem. Consumers, who are responsible for sorting out the different types of waste they generate to then facilitate the recycling process, play a key role in guaranteeing the system's feasibility. Without their contribution the recycling system would inevitably collapse. According to the Environment Ministry, some 40 to 50 percent of all household waste is organic and as such good for producing compost. The organic waste compartment in the trash cans of Spanish households, however, is often used as a rag bag for all sorts of products, including glass, plastic and even heavy metals. As a result the compost produced is of such low quality that often it ends up being unusable.

The biggest recyclers in Spain according to a recent report by Ecoembes, a non-profit organisation that has masterminded several plastic recycling programs, are middle-aged housewives, mostly in their early 40s, who live in towns of over 50,000 people. The worst recyclers are men under 39 who live in big cities.

The government, meanwhile, is responsible for establishing the adequate legal framework to ensure manufacturers assume responsibility for their used products. Progress, however, is slow, in some cases far too slow. Batteries, for instance, are one of the most polluting elements in household waste. The government has been working on a decree to regulate their recovery for 10 years now. Currently in Spain only one fifth of all batteries used by consumers end up in the adequate containers, and of those only 25 percent are recycled. "The rest end up in dumps inside 25-litre containers, and most of them finish in landfills," says a source from the Spanish association for the disposal of batteries, storage batteries and cell phones (AERPAM). The consequences are tragic. One alkaline battery can contaminate 175,000 litres of water, the equivalent of all the water consumed by six people throughout their lives.  Batteries can be disposed of in stores that sell these types of products and in municipal containers set up for this purpose.

Most people find sorting their waste a problem. The most common excuses forwarded to avoid the dreaded task include lack of time and not having enough space in the house for all the different containers.

"Perhaps at the beginning it's a bit annoying, but it's well worth it," says Antonio Barrón, the communications director of Ecoembes' business group. The materials obtained at recycling plants return to the commercial circuit. Plastic is used to manufacture all sorts of products, from trash cans to fleeces. Five 1.5-litre bottles of mineral water are enough to make a fleece scarf. Metals can be turned into bicycles, washing machines and metal containers. The amount of energy saved by using recycled products in manufacturing is also considerable. The same amount of energy is necessary to produce 20 tin cans from recycled products as it is to produce one from the actual raw material.

The most successful recycling programs in Spain are those affecting plastic and metal products, paper, cardboard and glass. The former are meant to be deposited in yellow containers present in most neighbourhoods of Spanish cities, paper goes into the blue containers, while glass is recycled in green containers. A 1997 law on recycling is what made this widespread infrastructure possible. According to data collected by Ecoembes, 42.7 million of Spain's 45 million people have access to paper and cardboard containers, while 41.4 million have a yellow container near them. In fact, 97 percent of Spanish towns with a population of over 5,000 have introduced waste disposal systems that facilitate plastic recycling, and 94 percent have set up paper and cardboard recycling mechanisms. Glass recycling containers are also widespread. According to Ecovidrio, the association in charge of organizing glass disposal mechanisms nationwide, 50.8 percent of all the glass collected in 2006 returned to the market as recycled products, representing a 12.4-percent hike compared to the previous year.

Despite this, Spain is at the bottom of the European recycling ranking, behind other Mediterranean countries such as Portugal, Greece and Turkey. Sweden and Germany, with a stronger environmental movement, recycle up to 90 percent of all the glass they use.

Javier Puig de la Bellacasa, Ecovidrio's general manager, argues that in those countries there is a longer recycling tradition and people are generally more environmentally conscious.

"In Germany they go through the garbage of apartment blocks to check whether they are recycling correctly. If they discover any kind of irregularity the homeowners' association is fined," Puig de la Bellacasa explains.

Different studies reveal that consumers inadvertently place their waste in the wrong container 25 percent of the time. "Some people make mistakes without realising it, and throw out a toy or a videotape [into a plastic container]. The toy might be made out of plastic but it can't be recycled at regular recycling plants," he adds.

The most problematic area for aspiring recyclers, however, is deciding what to do with their batteries, cell phones, used oil, computers, televisions, CDs and other such products. Most people ignore where to throw out these products once they don't want them anymore. Of course finding a way to reuse them is the best option. If that is not possible it is important to make sure not to throw them out with the organic waste. The best option is to get in touch with the town council or visit one of the so-called "clean spots," which are specialised areas for the disposal of all kinds of garbage. Another choice would be to take them to the store where the new product to replace them is being bought.

Asimelec, an association of Spanish electronics and communications firms, manages cell phone disposal and recycling programs in Spain, as well as managing the disposal of all waste related with electronic office equipment, slot machines, cameras and battery chargers. In 2005 the government made the controlled disposal of such products compulsory. Julio Lema, head of Asimelec's commercial services, says that his organisation has already set up 700 containers for cell phones. They can usually be found in city councils, cultural centres and other municipal buildings.

It is still tough, however, to figure out what to do with optical storage devices such as CDs and DVDs. These products are mostly made of polycarbonate, a recyclable product that is useful in the car manufacturing, computing and communications industries. Despite its versatile character and the fact that it takes up to 5,000 years for polycarbonate to decompose, there is no specific legislation regulating the disposal of this kind of waste. As a result, most CDs and DVDs end up being thrown out with organic waste or in the yellow containers.

A year ago the firm Sarbide set in motion a project to recycle CDs and DVDs in the Basque Country. The company has already set up 500 containers. "We estimate we'd need about 20,000," says Goyo Cardiel, head of Sarbide.

An early draft of the national plan for urban waste management reveals that over recent years environmental awareness has risen among Spaniards and that this has been matched by a growing number of recycling facilities. At the same time, however, the report points at serious shortcomings in the current system, especially as regards its inability to rein in consumption and waste disposal patterns, which reveal that waste production continues growing exponentially in Spain year after year. Such a situation "is unsustainable," reads the report.

January 2008

[Copyright El Pais / ESTHER SÁNCHEZ 2008]

Subject: Spanish news