Spain has a problem with recycling: reuse rates, both in the urban area and in general, are still 10 points below the European average and a huge distance from Germany, which almost doubles the figures for waste in cities. .
More worrying is the circular use of materials, which measures how many of the total raw materials come from recycling, the percentage of which has gone from 11.5% to 7.1% in 12 years (since 2010).
These are some of the main conclusions of the latest Essentials report by the BBVA Foundation and the Valencian Institute for Economic Research (Ivie), prepared using data from Eurostat – the European Statistical Office of the European Commission – and published this Wednesday.
The report analyzes the evolution of these indicators in the main economies of the European Union - Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands - and their comparison with the average of the Twenty-seven.
Spain only fares well in one of the indicators: in the urban waste generated - which includes both economic activity and domestic use - a reduction of 40% per capita has been achieved between 2004 and 2020. This figure is due to the reduction of chemical, wood, textile and plastic waste, in all cases with reduction rates above 50%.
On the other hand, packaging has increased by 12% in two decades, mainly due to the increase in electronic commerce.
Meanwhile, the kilos of waste per inhabitant in the urban area go from 654 kilos per capita in 2000 to 472 kilos in 2021, which represents a decrease of 32.5%.
“There has been greater awareness among the population about separating the garbage they produce, and that has prevented waste from going to the landfill,” explains Ernest Reig, Ivie researcher and one of the authors of the report.
“In any case, the Spanish population has grown more than the European average, and since in this case we are talking about a quotient—which compares the volume of waste with the population—this population growth entails a certain reduction in the quotient,” he adds.
People are becoming more aware of recycling, but once the different bags reach the container, there is a lot of work to do.
In fact, Spain is at the bottom of the urban waste recycling rate, with only 36.7% recovery in 2021, more than 10 points below the European Union average, which reached 48. 7%, and far behind Germany (67.8%).
“It is true that we are still far behind, but we have made a lot of progress in two decades in which the recycling rate has almost doubled: in 2000 that rate was 18.5% in Spain, while Germany was already recycling 52.5%,” says Eva Benages, also an economist at IVIE and another of the authors of the report.
In those two decades, the European average has gone from 27.3% to 48.7%.
Meanwhile, the reuse rate of all waste also remains below surrounding countries: 48% compared to 58% in Europe.
Reig attributes this to the lack of innovation in the Spanish sector.
“Germany and France produce more patents related to recycling than Spain and that has consequences on what happens with this waste,” he points out.
More worrying is the rate of circular use of materials, which measures the relationship between the use of raw materials that come from recycling with respect to the total use of materials.
In this case, Spain has gone from 10.5% in 2010 to 7.1% in 2022;
The European average is 11.5% and in this field the leader is the Netherlands, with 27.5%.
“This means that we opt more for the extraction of new materials than for reuse, which represents cost savings and helps the environment,” says Benages.
“It may have to do with the fact that people are aware of separating waste and recycling, but we also need to raise awareness about more sustainable consumption models, that is, betting on second-hand products or repairing the ones we already have,” he continues. .
A woman looks at second-hand clothes in a Humana store in Madrid.
INMA FLORES
Reig goes further: “To recycle materials more, markets for reusable products must be created. It is important that companies and administrations have a place to contact each other to create a market that allows exchange, in the style of Wallapop —which works as second-hand purchase and sale for individuals—- but for companies.
Some steps have been taken, but it has not yet been sufficiently developed.”
In his opinion, “consumers can also do more, we must try to extend the useful life of products with repair and remanufacturing, which consists of using the components of a product to reassemble them into another product.”
Return of packaging
Julio Barea, Greenpeace waste expert, points out another pending issue: “The yellow container reached its maximum capacity for recovering packaging decades ago, while the sector does nothing but boycott any measure to modify this system.”
What can you do then?
“The first thing is to eliminate all disposable containers.
And then you have to opt for a packaging return system in which when you buy a product you leave a small deposit (from 8 to 50 cents) that is recovered when the packaging is returned."
This system already works in countries such as Germany, Denmark or Portugal and helps improve rates.
“In Germany there are PET plastic bottles that are reusable 40 or 50 times.
They are prepared for it and when they are returned they are washed and used again,” he says.
Consumers save the bottles and take them to machines in supermarkets, which offer a ticket with how much money they will discount on their next purchase.
“On the other hand, in Spain 51 million beverage containers are sold every day, of which only 20 million are recovered for recycling, and this would be a simple way to remove many of them from circulation,” continues Barea.
“Despite the progress made in recent years, Spain still has a long way to go in the development of the circular economy,” the document summarizes.
“To take advantage of the potential offered by this sustainable economy model, investments in R&D and the generation of patents in this area would have to be increased [...].
In addition, the circular economy also requires cultural changes in consumers and their consumption habits, which can drive the development of new business models based on the so-called collaborative economy or on the rental of certain services instead of ownership of the good they lends them,” the report concludes.
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