El Vendrell City Council will extend the door-to-door garbage collection system and smart containers to the entire municipal area starting in 2025.
Now house-to-house collection works as a pilot test in two neighborhoods and in the center of Sant Vicenç, with a recycling rate of 80%. On the contrary, in the rest of the municipality only 30% of waste is recycled, a percentage that the government wants to double by 2030.
The local executive has detailed that it will implement door-to-door service in areas where single-family houses or blocks with few neighbors predominate, while in neighborhoods with more buildings the collection will be structured with smart containers that will only work on the days established. the collection of each fraction.
Door-to-door waste collection is currently implemented in the Nou Vendrell and Torreblanca neighborhoods, and in the center of Sant Vicenç del Calders.
Looking ahead to 2024, it is expected that the new tender will be processed to extend it to homes and businesses in the historic center, Mas d'en Gual, els Masos, el Romaní, Oasis, Edén Park, el Francàs and in the Coma area. ruga where single-family houses predominate.
The other half of Coma-ruga - with a predominance of large apartment blocks and second homes -, SSant Salvador, Tancat, Muntanyeta and Puig are areas where the new tender provides for the implementation of smart containers for domestic waste. In these areas, door-to-door service will only be for shops and restaurants.
The City Council estimates that the new contract will be awarded during the second half of 2024, so the change in waste collection would come into force in 2025.
The mayor, Kenneth Martínez, has assured that El Vendrell will become the largest municipality in the Tarragona district by implementing this selective collection system. He has especially highlighted the complexity that the new system will have to face when the summer season arrives, when the town goes from 40,000 to 100,000 inhabitants.
Martínez has highlighted the need to make a "definitive leap" towards more efficient selective garbage collection.
"It is necessary that we all move together to face this challenge as a municipality, which is a national objective," he added, stressing that the current 30% recycling rate "is not enough." "We must be able to reach 80%, as the neighborhoods where door-to-door services already reach," he predicted this Monday at a press conference.
Beyond the long-term objectives, the Waste Councilor, Núria Rovira, has set the imminent goal of reaching 55% in 2025, and expanding it to 60% in 2030.
Rovira recalled that Catalan, state and European laws lead towards these thresholds, and warned that if the municipality does not reach it it will be exposed to sanctions from higher administrations. "The cost will be very high," she warned.
The government has pointed out that the new model will be finalized by the company that wins the competition and is in charge of deploying it, but a priori the collection of two fractions of garbage each day is planned. In this way, each neighbor will have small containers that he must leave at the door of the house with the corresponding fraction, and the company responsible for the collection will validate them with a reader.
In the case of areas that operate with smart containers, the collection days for each fraction will be the same as in door-to-door neighborhoods. However, these neighbors will have a card with which they will have to go to the container islands. These will only be opened on the days that correspond to each of the fractions.
