Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing

The rollout of the Cuidem Barcelona service is now under way in the districts of Ciutat Vella, L’Eixample, Gràcia, Sant Andreu and Sant Martí, and will be introduced in the rest of the city from September. The new service has more resources and workers, enabling it to operate more frequently, plus a new fleet of more silent and less pollutant electric vehicles, adapting to the needs of each neighbourhood.

The new cleaning and waste collection service adapts to the various spaces in the city in different ways:

• New machinery.
• Introduction of multi-purpose teams.
• More water-jet cleaning in more areas.
• More cleaning services to remove stains on pavements.
• More cleaning in green zones and parks in the city.
• More cleaning of containers, inside and out.
• More cleaning in afternoons and on public holidays to adapt the service to public uses of public space.
• Specific work plan for each neighbourhood after analysing representative cases and the needs and demands of local people in each area.

More efficient, more sustainable and more social

At the same time, Cuidem Barcelona is boosting its workforce by 10%. Specifically, the service will get 400 more workers. The new service is also taking on women in senior positions, as well as people with disabilities and people at risk of social exclusion, plus a 40-strong team of information staff.

In addition, the current figure of 20% electric vehicles in the fleet will rise to 66%, with 870 more silent vehicles in all, thanks to silent machinery to cut the level of noise generated by the service.

Backing selective waste collection

With the rollout of Cuidem Barcelona, the idea is to cut the generation of waste by 10% by 2030 and increase selective waste collection to 55% by 2025 to meet the goals set out by Europe.

A series of changes are being introduced to achieve this:

• Simplification of the model for the separation of materials which go into the yellow container.
• New waste collection models and systems adapted to the city’s urban realities.
• New design for waste containers, more flexible and better adapted to the local area.

A new model is also being implemented for the distribution of a waste containers, grouping all categories together in a single location wherever possible, or grouping together selective waste containers. This distribution increases the number of selective waste containers by 25% and reduces the number of containers for rubbish.

The new cleaning and waste collection service is part of the Cuidem Barcelona Plan for the comprehensive maintenance of public space, involving an investment of 2,300 million euros over the next eight years.