Project type                                                                                     Waste management, waste collection

Implementing entity

Until 2004, the city of Argentona in Catalonia applied a common waste collection system in Spain, separating 4 types of waste: glass, paper, light packaging and residual waste. The recycling rate was low (less than 20%) and most waste ended up in the Mataró incinerator. Faced with the saturation of the latter, the city of Argentona decided to introduce a new collection system, door to door, introduced gradually and by means of an information and awareness campaign for the inhabitants. Following the introduction of this model, the recycling rate drastically increased. In 2012, it reached 68.5% on average.

Concretely, one type of waste is collected at home every day of the week, stream by stream, by rear-loading trucks. Residents take out their garbage at a specific time – between 8 and 10 p.m., with collection starting at 10 a.m. All waste is taken to a sorting center near Mataró, where neighboring municipalities collect their recyclable and residual waste to direct it to the appropriate factories.

To continue to improve the rate of recycling and reduce the production of waste, the municipality of Argentona introduced, in 2009, a waste incentive pricing system, where people pay according to what they throw away, which rewards or economically penalizes households based on the amount of waste they produce. Before that, there was a fixed tax that was levied on all residents. Now the cost of waste management is covered by a combination of a fixed rate tax, which covers the partial fixed costs of the system, and a variable tax whose price is proportional to the amount of waste discarded. Furthermore, this PAYT system is based on the introduction of prepaid standard bags for residual waste (red) and light packaging (yellow), initially introduced for businesses and households. The yellow bags were then removed for citizens. PAYT is also applied for the organic fraction produced by companies. The municipality provides a number of bags included in the fixed part of the tax (1, 2 or 2.5 packets depending on the members of the household). Additional bags must be purchased from collaborating stores at a price of €0.65/17L bag. Companies must pay a fixed tax calculated according to the size of their premises and the type of activity they carry out and a variable tax according to the number of bags used for residual waste (2.5€/bag of 65L ) and light packaging (€1/100L bag).

Information sources : https://zerowastecities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/zero_waste_europe_cs2_argentona_fr.pdf

• Between 2008 and 2018, the quantity of waste produced/capita/day decreased by 26% to reach 1.27 kg. Over the same period, the rate of selective waste collection rose from 52.8% to 87.6%. Residual waste decreased by 15% between 2009 and 2013 and packaging waste by 16%.
• The quality of separately collected waste remained high.
• The use of the municipal collection center increased.
• The system was widely accepted by the majority of the population and was submitted to a wide political debate.
• The number of jobs tripled, improving social inclusion and raising community awareness of the environment.
• The municipality managed to save up to €35,000 per year.