A total of 10.9 million tons of municipal waste go to landfills every year in Spain, according to data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition for the year 2020. This figure is equivalent to an area of 800 soccer fields, according to a conversion factor. used by Recircula, which uses a standardized ratio for this extrapolation.
A total of 2.8 million tons of waste (12.7% of the total) go directly to the landfill and are buried there without prior treatment, while the rest (8.1 million tons) also end up in landfills after having been collected in separate containers and subjected to a treatment that has resulted in this volume of waste that cannot be used.
The data was disclosed coinciding with the announcement by 26 civil society entities that have denounced Spain before the EU for failing to meet the community objective on recycling. Specifically, in Spain 40.5% of municipal waste was recycled (2020), while the community directive (2008) and the Waste Law of 2011 forced this figure to be 50%.
“We are facing very serious breaches. 2.8 million tons of waste have been taken directly to the landfill without prior treatment. There are no relevant changes in waste management. It is easy to think that the European objectives for 2025 will not be met”, says Carlos Arribas, an expert from Ecologistas en Acción. "We have spent years with very low recycling rates, a null presence of prevention and reuse policies and laws that are not complied with," summarize these entities. “Waste management in Spain does not work”, they cry out.
The forecast of the entities is that, if nothing changes, the objectives will be breached in 2025 (55%) and 2030 (60%). The Eurostat advance places the recycling ratio in Spain for 2021 at 36.7%.
The community with the highest level of recycling is Catalonia (57%), followed by La Rioja (56%), the Basque Country (55%) and the Valencian Community (53%). Navarra is close to the goal and, on the contrary, in the Community of Madrid only 28.6% of municipal waste is recycled.
