Col·laboració entre administracions

Preventing and managing the waste we generate has reached the point where it has become one of the main priorities of public administrations.

Legislation and regulations currently define which measures have to be adopted before a product or material becomes waste, thus contributing to reducing the amount of waste generated and minimising the negative impact this could have on people’s health or the environment.

In this regard, European, Spanish state and Catalan legislation and regulations establish a hierarchy that sets the order of priorities to be applied in waste management policies, with prevention in first place:

  1. Waste prevention
    Measures adopted with the intention of making the most of resources, reintroducing them into society by means of circular economy processes.
  2. Preparation for reuse
    This involves carrying out checks, cleaning or repair operations, by means of which the product or its components that have a waste produce are prepared for reuse.
  3. Recycling and material recovery
    Recycling and material recovery operations turn waste into useful products or materials again, either for their original purpose or any other. This includes the transformation of organic material but not energy recovery nor its transformation into materials that are used as fuels or for backfill.
  4. Energy recovery
    Any recovery operation that cannot be regarded as preparation for reuse or the recycling of waste into new products.
  5. Controlled disposal
    Only in cases where all other options, including recovery, have not been possible.

In order to tackle the climate emergency we are facing, all levels of public administration have legislated on waste. Consult the legislation regulating waste in the Legal Framework section.