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Cádiz, Spain

IMPACTPaperRec / Facts & Figures  / Case studies / Cádiz, Spain
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GENERAL DATA

NATIONAL AND REGIONAL SYSTEM

Legislation & targets

Law 22/2011 establishes the obligation of having (at least) separate collection for paper and cardboard, metal, plastics and glass until 2015. Local authorities are responsible for the separate collection of household waste.
The general recycling rate set on the national level is in line with the EU Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC): 50 % preparation for reuse and recycling until 2020.  However, the national waste management plan foresees specific targets for different waste streams. For paper and cardboard, a 70 % recycling target has been set for 2020.

EPR system

EPR has been established in Spain in 1996 and is implemented both individually and collectively.  ECOEMBES is the company in charge of managing cardboard packaging waste.

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WASTE COLLECTION SCHEME

Separate collection for paper and cardboard was set up in Cádiz in 1992. The system conducts separate collection of Paper for Recycling (PfR) for households by combining Bring Banks (BB) with Recycling Yards (RY). The blue containers in the BB system are placed together with three other container, for plastics-cans-tetrapack, glass and other household waste. These blue containers are the same all over Spain and thus easily recognisable to the citizen. They are above-ground containers with a capacity of 2400 l. In 2015, 264 containers were placed. The frequency of emptying is three times per week on average. Collection of the PfR is conducted by a compacting vehicle with a capacity of 23m3 for the bring bank containers; Recycling Yards use above-ground containers with a capacity of 40 m3.

The municipal waste management scheme applies to waste from households, commercials, offices and services as well as to all waste that is not hazardous and which is similar in nature and composition to the waste produced in the above listed places and activities. 213 shops take part in the municipal waste management system. These stores are served by Door-to-Door separate collection of the PfR fraction. Recyclables are collected on 5 days per week in the city centre and 3 days per week in the outskirts. PfR is thereby collected loose, without a bag, with a truck with an open dump box and a capacity of 5m3. Commercials that are participating in the system can also use the recycling yards.

Service to the citizens:

820 l/inh/y
< 100 m distance to next blue container, 456 inhabitants/container

Service for small shops:

17.27 l/inh/y;
9,765 l/store/y

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 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

Several campaigns are conducted annually on the municipal level. A campaign targeted at the households is supported by the neighbourhood associations. Campaigns targeted at shop owners are supported by the Federation of Associations of shopkeepers, self-employed, and industrials of Cádiz (FACAI – Federación de Asociaciones de Comerciantes, Autónomos e Industriales de Cádiz).

Specific campaigns on packaging waste or on graphic paper are furthermore promoted by ECOEMBES and ASPAPEL . The awareness-raising campaigns conducted in cooperation with ECOEMBES are primarily intended to educate on separate collection and to the reduction of foreign materials in each waste stream. ASPAPEL has furthermore developed specific awareness-raising campaigns which are also implemented in the city of Cádiz, including a campaign promoting selective separation of waste in the small business sector. More information on institucional.cadiz.es/area/RecogidayGestionderesiduos.
The responses received from the stakeholders indicate that some parts of the population might not feel perfectly well informed about how to sort their waste.
The shop/small business owner who responded to the questionnaires stated that he feels rather poorly informed about how to sort his waste in general and how to sort paper and cardboard waste in particular. On the other hand this respondent regards sorting as easy (for all recyclables), it is therefore not fully clear where the dissatisfaction with the information provided comes from.
The main source of information for all stakeholders is the website of the municipality, for citizens TV spots are furthermore the main source. Citizens furthermore receive the information on waste sorting from the information provided on the containers, from leaflets, and from the website of the collector.

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EVOLUTION PAPER & CARBOARD WASTE COLLECTED

The amount of paper and cardboard in the residual waste fraction is only available from 2011 onwards. Looking at the total amounts of paper and cardboard it can however be assumed that the amount of paper & cardboard in residual waste was much higher in 2000 (probably at least 10 kg/in/y) and then slowly decreased as off 2004. In 2015, the amount of paper and cardboard in the residual waste was 5.26 kg/inh/y (19.47 %).The amount of paper and cardboard separately collected almost doubled over the course of the past 15 years.
The amount of paper and cardboard separately collected almost doubled over the course of the past 15 years.

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PAPER AND CARDBOARD WASTE TREATMENT

Waste fractions that are collected separately are designated to recycling. Paper and cardboard are transported via a transfer station to the recuperation plant. In 2015, 81 % of all paper and cardboard was recycled.

The paper and cardboard included in the residual waste fraction is transported to a treatment and composting plant in Miramundo. At the plant the mixed waste gets sorted and paper and cardboard is composted on site.

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COSTS AND REVENUE, RESOURCES

Citizens pay a fee for the collection of their residual waste, the collection of paper & cardboard and other recyclables is free of charge. The waste fee is charged every two months, together with the fee for the water supply service. The fee for households is calculated as a calculation of 9,05 €/month which is multiplied with a factor that depends on the street category. The fees for shops are calculated in a similar way based on 19,50 €/month. In the past five years, the fee for citizens increased by 17 % on average.
The EPR scheme for packaging, ECOEMBES, finances the collection of cardboard packaging, corresponding to 40 % of the weight of the blue containers and for the commercial DtD collection up to a maximum limit of 3 kg/cap/y.The cost coverage of the whole system is 15.23 %. When looking only at the costs and revenues for the paper & cardboard fraction, costs for PfR collection and sorting are covered by 114.27 %

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STAKEHOLDER SATISFACTION

Only six citizens responded to the questionnaire for citizens. This much less than the already small number of respondents from other territories and can thus not be analysed in the same manner. However, what is interesting to note is that at least 2 out of these 6 citizens questioned are somewhat dissatisfied with the waste management services provided by the municipality, or at least question them
regarding its level of transparency, effectiveness, reliability, high quality service, and practicality.
 For all other stakeholder groups, one respondent each answered the questionnaire. From the collective of all questionnaires it becomes clear that all stakeholder groups have some doubts.
Particularly the shop/small business is disagrees with almost all positive statements on the WM services (transparent, good service for money, effective, high quality service, reliable).
Also the paper mill questions the effectiveness of the WM services.
As an NGO, a neighbourhood association responded to the questionnaire and stated that citizens in Cádiz are rather poorly informed about how to sort their waste and what to do with their paper and cardboard waste. They are furthermore somewhat dissatisfied with the WM services provided by the municipality and strongly disagree with the statement “The WM services provided by the municipality meet the needs of the citizens”. Further investigation on these points would be interesting.
Furthermore there is an interesting discrepancy between some of the stakeholder groups: While the employee of the WM department thinks that 80 – 100 % of all citizens sort their paper & cardboard, the neighbourhood association thinks that only 10 -45 % of all citizens separate their waste and also the waste management company disagrees with the statement “The vast majority of citizens sort their paper”.

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MAIN PROBLEMS/CHALLENGES

•    The respondent to the waste management company questionnaire notes as biggest problems with paper collected from small shops and businesses the very low quantities of paper as well as the fact that employees don’t seem to pay attention to recycling – they need to be obliged to sort or it can often be observed that they don’t make an extra effort to recuperate this paper/cardboard.
Furthermore there is an interesting discrepancy between some of the stakeholder groups: While the employee of the WM department thinks that 80 – 100 % of all citizens sort their paper & cardboard, the neighbourhood association thinks that only 10 -45 % of all citizens separate their waste and also the waste management company disagrees with the statement “The vast majority of citizens sort their paper”.
•    The recycler/paper mail notes as biggest problems the presence of material other than paper and high moisture affecting the quality. In their view this could be avoided through improving the process of containerisation and collection of materials for separation with the aim of avoiding that the valuable paper/cardboard fraction gets contaminated with organic waste.
•    An employee from the waste management department states that the physical shape of the historic centre makes the containerisation and the collection of the separately collected fraction more difficult. This is addressed by complementing the service with a door-to-door collection of the residual waste fraction for the households and a collection of paper and cardboard for small shops, and glass from hotels and restaurants.

More information: Daniel García Jiménez
Ayuntamiento de Cádiz – Técnico Superior de Medio Ambiente
daniel.garciajimenez@cadiz.es
+34 956 205001

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