Selective waste collection

Cleaning public areas and managing the municipal waste generated in Barcelona is one of the City Council's responsibilities. Given the wide range of uses and functions of the city's buildings, facilities and public areas, there are various kinds of waste collection adapted to the peculiarities of each one, in terms of both the amount and type of waste. domestic, commercial, markets, other collections, Green Points and bulky waste.

This current model is the result of an evolution that focuses on expanding the separated waste collection, with the aim of reducing the rejected fraction and increasing the amount of waste recovered selectively.

The progressive deployment of organic waste collection (starting in 2001 and covering the whole city by 2010), the implementation and improvement of commercial collection management, the implementation of selective collection at markets (paper-cardboard and organic matter), and the expansion and consolidation of the city's Green Point network (fixed, local, neighbourhood and mobile points), are just some of the initiatives that have made a contribution.

In recent decades, the general trend in big cities has been the progressive increase in the amount of municipal waste generated. Barcelona is no exception; in 2015, we reached the figure of 748,642 tonnes of waste generated per year. This translates as 466.6 kg tonnes a year per inhabitant (1.27 Kg a day), which is well below the maximum peak of 563.2 Kg a year, reached in 2007 (1.54 Kg a day). Regarding the different types of waste, domestic waste accounted for 76.6% of the total (529,233 tonnes), followed by commercial waste at 7.76%, markets at 1.95%, Green Point at 2.16% and bulky waste at 4.25%.                            

The zero waste strategy adopted by the City Council is based on prevention, reduced waste generation, reuse and selective collection. Regarding the latter aspect, the main aim is to have a positive effect on a qualitative and quantitative improvement in selective collection, and especially that of organic matter.

For this reason, in 2017, Barcelona City Council launched a Plan for Raising Awareness in Improving Organic-Waste Collections in four of the city's neighbourhoods: Barceloneta, Les Roquetes, El Putxet i Farró, and El Guinardó.

Selective Waste collection Guide (PDF)

 

Recommended links:

Types of selective collection

Green Points

Waste finder