Rosa Trigo is the executive director of Ecoembes, the organization that manages the recycling of waste that goes into the yellow and blue container, and which includes packagers, manufacturers and distributors. Trigo outlines a new strategy aimed at developing actions beyond mere recycling.
In Spain, the municipal waste recycling rate is around 40% according to 2021 data. We are far from the 50% required by legislation for 2020. What's wrong?
It is clear that we must do more. We started collecting packaging 25 years ago and we are in the top ten EU countries that recycle the most packaging. But we are only 8% of the entire waste pie. It is necessary to act on other materials. We have to continue expanding the collection of organic matter, which accounts for 60% of total municipal waste. Catalonia is advanced in this field; but where I live, for example, there is no collection of organic matter.
What would you highlight about the new European packaging regulation, about to finally be approved?
That we must continue recycling more and better, and that recycling alone is not enough. We must talk about reduction and reuse objectives, about preventing before generating packaging waste. And we must achieve 100% recyclable packaging and mostly made of recycled material.
You have estimated the recycling rate of domestic packaging at 84% and, on the other hand, other sectors reduce it to 37%. What is really happening?
We must clarify what waste we are referring to. If we talk about all urban waste, Eurostat says that Spain recycled 38.6% in 2021. But if we refer only to packaging, this same source confirms that we recycle 70.1%. And if we focus on the recycling of domestic packaging attached to Ecoembes, for which we are responsible, the percentage is around 74%. This figure is somewhat lower than the previous year but not because less packaging has been recycled, but because Europe has changed the way of calculating recycling to unify the methodology in all countries. From now on it will be measured just before the entry of the actual material transformation process, so the final figure will be more realistic by already discounting the losses inherent to the industrial process.
But that is the figure of what Ecoembes controls, of its companies attached with the green dot. But it is known that there is fraud, plastics and light packaging in general that are uncontrolled, without that green dot.
At this point, the registry of producers that the Ministry has launched will help us a lot. Any producer or packager, in order to sell something, has to register in the Ministry's producer registry; and to be able to do so he has to be attached to a collective system of extended producer responsibility (Scrap). These breaches are going to be increasingly difficult. We send that information to the Ministry; Without it they cannot register and if they are not in the producer registry, they cannot sell. We have almost 15,000 companies adhered to the green dot.
Citizens increasingly see more types of packaging, especially those made from mixed materials that complicate recycling.
With our strategic plan we will give our companies the tools to help them eco-design their packaging. The idea is that they do not mix metal with plastic, or that, if they do mix it, it is easy to separate them for the citizen or in the recycling process. It is established by the packaging directive and decree. Furthermore, companies that design packaging that facilitates recycling will pay less for the green point (tax whose income is transferred to the Administration to finance selective collection).
After legislation was passed that requires the replacement of certain single-use everyday plastics (cutlery, stirrers, straws...), the industry seems to adapt easily to a model that continues to encourage use and throw away if it is not collected properly. There are now plastics marked as six times reusable that appear to be not very durable or compostable.
First, citizens must also be made aware of reuse. And that goes beyond the industrial sector. I agree that we must reduce, reuse and we must also continue to improve recycling. But we must also change our habits. If you are a citizen and you buy a reusable container, it is to reuse it, not to use it and throw it away. It is not enough to just change a straw for a plastic paper cup if I do not put it correctly in its container or if I buy a reusable container and only use it once. The industry has to continue working but we, Ecoembes or the media, have to continue training and informing citizens.
From now on you will pay the municipalities to finance selective collection not only based on the containers collected selectively but, applying the polluter pays principle, you will have to pay the total cost including the packaging of the rest container, street cleaning , bottles, beaches...
Yes, containers from people who do not want to recycle or are confused go into the waste fraction container. What the law says is that if the selective collection objectives are met at the regional level, starting in 2025, 50% of the cost of the containers recovered from the gray container will be financed. Otherwise, 100% will be paid but with the condition that the money be used to improve the collection of the yellow and blue containers. It is the way to discourage the container from going to the rest container. Europe, the Ministry, the regulations require us to selectively collect.
Europe endorses the system of deposit, return and return of beverage containers to commerce due to the high rates collected. Could it be implemented in Spain?
For us, the important thing is the final objective, and meeting that objective. In 2023 we will have met the objective of achieving a selective collection of beverage bottles (mainly soft drinks and water) of 70% in 2023. In the long term these goals will be more ambitious; Our idea is to comply with them with the model that is necessary.
How will you improve packaging collection?
The beverage container return system (SDDR) is one more tool, whose use we must evaluate based on whether or not we are meeting the new goals set by the law for successive years. But keep in mind that we not only have quantified targets for beverage bottles, but also for other types of packaging such as cans, cartons, etc. Therefore, we must also evaluate other options such as payment per generation or door-to-door payment, which is already implemented in several municipalities and is working well. In parallel, Ecoembes continues to evolve the current model by incorporating digitalization and incentives in the habit of recycling packaging through Reciclos. We have 300 Reciclos machines distributed throughout shopping centers, where from a mobile application the QR code of the deposited container is scanned and points are obtained that give the right to raffles or are exchangeable for donations to social projects). And all this must be accompanied by greater communication to both companies and citizens to reduce, reuse and recycle all our waste to continue growing year after year.
You say that in 2023 70% of beverage bottles will have been recycled, but that is your data, it is a private record...
All this data is audited and measured; The producer registry that the Ministry is implementing is a very good thing for when we join other collective extended responsibility systems (Scrap). There are going to be more systems like Ecoembes or Ecovidrio, which are going to enter the market as players.
How do you face the arrival of new players in this market, new “Ecoembes” or new “Ecovidrio”?
We will not only manage domestic packaging, but also commercial packaging. Competition makes you wake up, improve and get out of your comfort zone if we have ever had them.
Is that where your strategic plan is heading?
We want to grow by providing service to our companies, in eco-design, training, helping with the reuse and reduction of packaging, truly supporting them on this path to the circularity of packaging, which is the objective we have set for ourselves. Our plan is not short-term, it looks to 2030; we want to recycle more; We are in the top 10 in Europe in packaging recycling and we want to be in the top 5, climbing five steps; and then work on reduction and reuse and ending garbage thrown in the countryside.
Why have packaging become a support for image washing? Can you advise companies to correct this excess?
Of course, we are asking for something as simple as placing a small icon with a citizen throwing the container into a yellow or blue container. That is more valid than the fact that it tells the citizen how a container was made. The citizen is saturated with information. The important thing is that the citizen knows where he should deposit it, and make it very clear.
More than 500 fires have been recorded in recycling plants in Spain since 2012, involving various materials, including plastics. What's happening?
Recyclers we work with have had some accidental fires. It is also a drama for them because of all the economic loss and damage to their facilities. But fires at packaging recyclers plants destined for the yellow container are rare. There are recyclers that are not well controlled. But we have hyper-controlled recyclers. Increasingly, legislation leaves no room for lack of control. Europe has increasingly focused on extended producer responsibility. When we see malpractice we must report it.
