Cleaning and Waste

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/851

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/851, of 30 May 2018, on waste, states the EU’s ambition to move towards a circular economy by improving preparation for waste recycling and reuse. This Directive, which amends Directive 2008/98/CE on waste, sets the following targets:

• By 2025, 55% by weight to be recycled or prepared for reuse.
• By 2030, 60% by weight to be recycled or prepared for reuse.
• By 2035, 65% by weight to be recycled or prepared for reuse.

It also establishes the system for calculating the achievement of targets and specifies that waste prepared for reuse that has not been subject to prior treatment or classification will be counted, as will recycled waste that has been subject to control, classification or other prior operations to remove materials not envisaged for their subsequent transformation, in order to ensure high-quality recycling and real transformation. The weight of municipal waste will be measured when it enters the recycling operation.

In the case of biodegradable municipal waste, any that generates compost, digestate or another result will be counted, provided it is used as a recycled product, material or substance. When it is used as a soil application, it will only be counted if it produces a benefit for agriculture or an ecological improvement.

The Directive also establishes that, as of 2027, only biodegradable municipal waste that has been counted separately will be counted.

Finally, the new calculation system also means that, to achieve the targets set by the Directive, selective collection levels must exceed 70-75%, as the calculation system will change and only waste that is really recycled will be taken into account as an indicator.

Consult European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/851.

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/850

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/850, of 30 May 2018, on the landfill of waste, amends Directive 1999/31/CE. This regulation is designed to ensure a progressive reduction in landfill disposal of materials suitable for recycling and other kinds of recovery, and sets 2030 as the target year for not accepting municipal waste suitable for recycling and other types of recovery in landfill sites. It also establishes that:

• The amount of municipal waste disposed of in landfills must be reduced to less than 10% of all municipal waste by 2035. This will include waste stemming from other recovery operations, such as mechanical biological processing or classification, that from incineration and stabilisation of the biodegradable fraction, and that from recycling and recovery operations disposed of in landfills.
• The 2035 target will be reviewed in 2024 with a view to maintaining it or reducing it even further.
• EU Member States are required to use economic instruments and adopt other measures that may be necessary to meet the targets set.

Consult European Parliament and European Council Directive 2018/850.

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2004/12/EC

European Parliament and European Council Directive 2004/12/EC, of 11 February 2004, amending Directive 94/62/EC on packaging and packaging waste, established the regulatory framework that the internal legislation of each EU Member State had to develop in order to reduce the environmental impact of packaging put on the market. The specific targets set by this Directive were as follows:

• Before 31 December 2008, a minimum of 60% by weight of packaging waste would have to be recovered or incinerated at waste incineration plants with energy recovery.
• Before 31 December 2008, between a minimum of 55% and a maximum of 80% by weight of packaging waste would have to be recycled.
• Before 31 December 2008, the following minimum recycling targets for materials contained in packaging waste would have to be attained:
  • 60% by weight for glass.
  • 60% by weight for paper and cardboard.
  • 50% by weight for metals.
  • 22.5 % by weight for plastics, counting exclusively material recycled back into plastics.
  • 15% by weight for wood.

Consult European Parliament and European Council Directive 2004/12/EC.

Act 22/2011

The purpose of Act 22/2011, of 18 June, on waste and soil contamination, is to regulate waste management by promoting measures that anticipate its generation and mitigate the adverse effects on human health and the environment associated with its generation and management, making more efficient use of resources. Likewise, it serves to regulate the legal system governing soil contaminants.

In transposing Directive 2008/98/EC, this Act also regulates the action principles that must govern waste management, at what point waste ceases to be waste or the definition of a by-product, as well as the content of waste prevention and management plans. It also sets targets for waste management on a state level.

In addition, the Act provides for public administrations to reinforce prevention policies with measures enabling them to achieve, before 2020, a 10% reduction in the weight of waste produced as compared to 2010 levels.

Finally, with the aim of moving towards a recycling society with high resource efficiency level, the Act states that the Spanish Government and the competent authorities must adopt, by means of waste management plans and programmes, the necessary measures for ensuring the ensuing targets and any others that may be set, are met.

Consult Act 22/2011.

PEMAR

The purpose of the Spanish State Waste Management Framework Plan (PEMAR) is to serve as a guide for developing specific policies that improve waste management, reducing its generation and promoting its treatment, in coordination with the autonomous regions and local bodies. The PEMAR also included specific treatment for different waste flows with particular environmental targets.

Likewise, it contains a chapter on domestic and commercial waste with a package of measures that make up the “Strategy for the Reduction of Biodegradable Waste going to Landfills”, in order to comply with the reduction targets.

Consult the Spanish State Waste Management Framework Plan.

State Programme for Waste Prevention 2014-2020

The State Programme for Waste Prevention 2014-2020 develops Spain’s waste prevention policy in order to achieve the target of a 10% reduction in waste generated compared to the 2010 figure. The Programme is based around four strategic lines of action designed to impact on the key elements in waste prevention:

• Reducing the amount of waste
• Reusing products and extending their useful life
• Reducing the content of harmful substances in materials and products
• Reducing the adverse effects that waste has on human health and the environment

Product areas or activity sectors have been identified for each of these strategic lines where priority action will be taken and the most effective prevention measures will be proposed.

Consult the State Programme for Waste Prevention 2014-2020.

Legislative Decree 1/2009

Legislative Decree 1/2009, of 21 July, approved the consolidated text of the Waste Act, which took into account and incorporated the new European, Spanish and Catalan legal framework.

Consult Legislative Decree 1/2009.

Act 8/2008

The purpose of Act 8/2008, of 10 July, on the funding of waste management infrastructure and taxes on the disposal of refuse from waste was to establish a favourable framework for funding waste management infrastructures and to regulate the taxes on municipal waste disposal. The Act also created a tax on municipal waste destined for incineration.

Consult Act 8/2008.

Act 5/2017

Act 5/2017, of 28 March, on fiscal, administrative, financial and public sector measures, and the creation and regulation of taxes, amends Act 8/2008 with regard to the refuse disposal tax in Article 1, which defines the tax on the controlled disposal and incineration of municipal waste until 2020.

Consult Act 5/2017.

Act 5/2020

Act 5/2020, of 29 April, on fiscal, administrative, financial and public sector measures, and the creation of the tax on facilities that impact on the environment, which establishes the progressive increase over four years of the tax on the controlled disposal and incineration of municipal waste. This measure intends to continue economically favouring the options that are environmentally adjusted to the European regulations, according to which disposal by means of deposition is the last option that should be applied, after prevention, reuse and recycling.

Consult Act 5/2020.

General Programme for Prevention and Management of Waste and Resources in Catalonia

The General Programme for Prevention and Management of Waste and Resources in Catalonia (PRECAT20) contains the strategic goals and targets that must drive waste management during the period 2013-2020. The main ones worth highlighting are to:

• Reduce waste generation in Catalonia and the carbon footprint associated with its management.
• Increase the quality of the selective collection of organic matter and light packaging.
• Ensure at least 55% by weight of domestic and commercial waste is destined for preparation for reuse and recycling.
• Establish policies to boost the business fabric linked to waste management.
• Achieve a leading position in research and innovation relating to waste and the efficient use of resources.

Consult the General Programme for Prevention and Management of Waste and Resources in Catalonia.

Draft bill for the new Catalan Waste Act

The Government of Catalonia is currently drawing up the draft bill for the new Catalan Waste Act. There is still no date for the Act’s approval but its aims are to:

• Comply with the Programme for Prevention and Management of Waste and Resources in Catalonia (PRECAT20) and specifically ACT-125 in the eighth final provision of Act 16/2017, of 1 August, on climate change; with point 1 in Motion 119/Xl of the Catalan Parliament on waste management; with the goals of area 2.8: Sustainability Plan of the Government of the 12th Legislature, and with the commitments that the Government of Catalonia has made in the various national and international institutional spheres.
• To adapt the regulatory framework to the goals and targets set in the applicable legislature, in particular to those derived from the Circular Economy Package of the European Union.
• Review the existing functions and competences in areas linked to the prevention and management of waste and the use of resources, to adapt them to the responsibilities of each party in the planning needs of the circular economy strategies.
• Improve prevention and, especially, the production and consumption guidelines, with regard to both the classical strategies, such as eco-design or industrial symbiosis, and others such as dematerialisation, product-service, or others geared towards reducing the consumption of resources and keeping consumed resources in circulation.
• Promote the collection and treatment of all waste, including waste flows in collaboration with the other responsible authorities in each case, in order to achieve a situation where waste, wherever it is generated, returns to the market as resources.
• Contribute to a global reduction of the impacts associated with waste generation and management, in particular with regard to soil contamination and climate change mitigation, and to do so by way of the circular economy.
• Stimulate economic activity, speed up and simplify the administrative activity of the Government of Catalonia and the municipal authorities, and improve knowledge of and transparency in the system, contributing to technological improvements, the integration of procedures, increased availability of data and information, and greater visibility of economic data, while maintaining the high standards demanded in environmental sustainability.

Declaration on New Municipal and Metropolitan Policies for Waste Collection

The Declaration on New Municipal and Metropolitan Policies for Waste Collection, approved unanimously by the Metropolitan Council of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) on 23 December 2016, commits the municipalities that make up the AMB to stabilising and reducing the generation of municipal waste and increasing the levels of selective waste collection in order to achieve the goals and targets of the European Waste Directive and of PRECAT20. Likewise, this declaration explicitly states the need to highlight the cost of the waste management system, in terms of household collection and its treatment, recommending a move towards payment for generation in selective collection, both household and commercial.

Consult the Declaration on New Municipal and Metropolitan Policies for Waste Collection.

Metropolitan Programme for Waste Prevention and Municipal Waste and Resources Management 2017-2025

The Metropolitan Programme for Waste Prevention and Municipal Waste and Resources Management 2017-2025 (PREMET25) establishes that by 2025 municipalities must introduce a payment system for using the waste collection service and establish a collaborative framework between them and the AMB so the Metropolitan Waste Treatment Tax (TMTR) can also be adjusted on an individual level, in line with selective collection behaviour. It also establishes that municipalities without a waste collection tax for households must at least introduce a tax that enables a rebate system to be established.

Consult PREMET25.

Metropolitan Zero Waste Agreement

The Metropolitan Zero Waste Agreement is a pact signed in February 2019 that commits municipalities in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, among other things, to having a collection tax for household users by 2021, or having introduced systems for individualising household collection that covers their entire population by 2025.

Consult the Metropolitan Zero Waste Agreement.

The Barcelona Environment Byelaw, approved on 2 May 2011, contains all the municipal regulations covering waste issues, specifically in Title 6. The purpose of this is to regulate the conditions in which waste generated in the city of Barcelona, whether it is household, commercial or industrial, has to be managed, by municipal collection services or duly approved and authorised waste managers.

The City Council’s waste management policy is geared towards achieving the following goals, in accordance with this hierarchical order:

1. Prevention and minimisation of waste
2. Reuse of waste
3. Selective waste collection
4. Recycling
5. Other types of waste, as well as energy recovery from waste in accordance with the best available technologies.
6. Suitable refuse disposal

In addition, the Byelaw also establishes that the City Council will promote the regeneration of degraded soils and spaces, and will also be able to set up collaboration programmes with various sectors of economic activity on waste management that are geared towards achieving the above goals.

Consult the Barcelona Environment Byelaw.

Barcelona Waste Prevention Plan

The Barcelona Waste Prevention Plan 2021-2020 is the municipal regulation that transposes European, Spanish and Catalan legislation, which establishes that prevention is the main line of action for moving towards zero waste, while the last alternative considered is disposal. This directive defines prevention as a package of measures to be adopted before a substance, material or product turns into waste.

This Plan aims to consolidate prevention actions in municipal waste management, foster the active participation and commitment of all the social and economic players, and ensure the prevention message reaches Barcelona’s citizens so they incorporate into their everyday habits actions and good practices that favour responsible and immaterial consumption.

The Plan’s overall target is to reduce municipal waste by 10%. To that end, the Plan consists of 8 thematic areas that envisage nearly 20 strategic lines and a total of 45 actions, mainly carried out during the life of the Plan..

Consult the Barcelona Waste Prevention Plan.

Climate Plan

The Climate Plan 2018-2030 is a declaration reaffirming the commitments Barcelona made at COP21 in Paris in 2015 (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), and the roadmap of actions that are priorities for the City Council and Barcelona’s citizens. The Barcelona Climate Commitment’s main targets for 2030 are to:

• Reduce its levels of CO2 equivalent emissions to 40% per capita compared to 2005.
• Increase urban green space by 1.6 km2 (in other words, 1 m2 for each current resident).

The Barcelona Climate Plan includes existing actions and strategies along with new ones to achieve these targets, while fulfilling the commitment the city made when signing the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (2017).

As part of this Plan, it is worth highlighting that Barcelona also undertakes to promote responsible consumption that drives healthier, more sustainable ways of life, facilitating the choice of and access to sustainable and socially just products and services. At the same time, the city also undertakes to roll out the Zero Waste Strategy by means of its action plan, in order to substantially reduce the generation of waste, improve separate collection and promote its reuse as resources.

Consult the Climate Plan.