Streets and squares

Maintenance of Public Areas

Cleaning streets and squares

In Barcelona, ​​not all places and streets have the same use frequency. Therefore, cleaning is adapted to each reality, which is determined by elements such as traffic, use frequency or people walking around there, commercial activity or if it's a leisure or a recreational areas, among others.

Most common cleaning systems are:

Manual sweep work
Cleaning teams sweep and clean the streets of the city.

Mechanical sweep work (with a brush machine)
Small sweeper trucks brush and vacuum all type of dirty.

Combines sweep work (a combination of the above-mentioned methods)
Along with small sweeper trucks, cleaning teams fully sweep the streets.

Water cleaning
Petits camions cisterna clean the dirty from streets using hoses with pressurised non-potable water which come from the phreatic.


Over 25,000 bins

Barcelona has a total amount of 25,229 bins. Its traditional bins have a capacity up to 70 or 140 liters (in the case of double bins which were placed in January 2012). There are a total amount of 500 double bins with a capacity up to 220 liters (2% of the total amount), which are placed in the busiest pedestrian areas, whether due tot its business, tourism or specific needs of each district.

Barcelona is one of the European cities with more paper per capita and unit area. Bins are protected with customised garbage bags in order to avoid staining both the bin and the pavement by dripping liquids or other waste. Emptying the bins depends on the rate of filling: in the most central areas of the city, bins can be emptied up to twelve times a day. All bins within the city have ashtrays or cigarette dampers, so use them. Having a clean Barcelona also depends on you. Use the bins, please!

Bins are the targets of preventive (repainting, revision, etc.) and corrective maintenance (repairing broken bins, for example). In addition, older bins are gradually replaced with new ones.

Bins are intensively cleaned four times a year and most often when talking about the most used ones within the city, which are located in the main roads and shopping streets.


Advices to take into account:

  • The cleanest city is not the one which is cleaned more regularly, but the one which gets less dirty
  • Use bins
  • Rain is not always a substitute for water cleaning. Sometimes, even when it rains, it's necessary to clean amongst the cars and around bins, in exemple
  • Don't throw trush bugs inside bins
  • Don't throw burning cigarretes

 

In Barcelona it is forbidden to:

  • Get the streets dirty with grease, oil, gums, leftovers or butts
  • Relieve oneself on the street
  • Clean vehicles or animals on the street
  • Water plants and clean rugs or clothes outside of the night time or bothering people
  • Leave pets feaces on the street
  • Embrutar el mobiliari urbà amb cartells, grafits, adhesius i altres elements