The City Council of León receives Aspapel "Your paper 21" certification

The Mayor of León, Francisco Fernandez, has received from the hands of the director of recycling of Aspapel, David neighborhood, "Your 21 paper" certificate which is granted to the town hall for good governance in the selective collection of paper and cardboard.

The environmental assessment of the collection of paper and cardboard in León, carried out by the Spanish Association of manufacturers of paste, paper and cardboard, confirms the suitability of their systems and the existence of measures for awareness-raising and promotion of recycling. Leon has become one of the first municipalities to receive certification in Spain and the first in the community of Castile and León, Spain

In 2006 the selective collection of paper and cardboard in León reached 4.398 tons, between deposited by citizens in the containers of paper and cardboard and collected by the service door to door commercial cardboard. These quantities of paper and cardboard collected represent a saving of space in landfill equivalent to 33 Olympic swimming pools filled with at the top of paper and cardboard.

These figures give a remarkable ratio of per capita collection: 32 kilos per inhabitant per year, well above the national average. Between January and September this year have been collected 3.662.550 pounds of paper and cardboard which is an increase of 16.4 per cent over the same period of last year. The forecast of the Department is that at the end of the year is over the 37.7 kg per capita.

"Your paper 21" is a system of assessment, advice and certification of the selective collection of paper and cardboard for city councils, promoted by Aspapel within the framework of the project "Your role is important", with the aim of developing the recycling of paper and cardboard at the municipal level and contributing to sustainable development and the quality of life of the citizens.

The objective of the project is the continuous improvement of the recovery of paper and cardboard, boosting the blue containers collection and developing complementary formulas in the areas in which margins of improvement have been identified: mainly in offices and schoolssmall businesses and homes.

Within this project, is part of "Your paper 21", a system of diagnosis, implementation of improvements and certification of the municipal separate collection of paper and cardboard, 21 indicators-based and supported by models of social participation and communication, in line with the guidelines of the Local Agenda 21.

The process of certification of the "Your paper 21" program is a dynamic system and implies a continuous improvement in the collection of paper and cardboard. Therefore, to certify, the local entity is committed to develop a Plan for improvements agreed upon between the local entity and Aspapel to move forward.

Lion currently has 387 thoroughfare for paper and cardboard containers, representing a ratio of 354 inhabitants per container. In the framework of this plan of continuous improvement, the City Council of León will provide urban roads of new residential areas of the city with enough container to ensure an adequate distance of new housing to the areas of recycling.

León has a specific system of collection of cardboard door to door for small trade that takes place daily from Monday to Saturday from 20 hours.

Service for collection of commercial cardboard has very positive effects on all of the waste collection, since get containers located on the street are not saturated by the voluminous commercial cardboard and available so that the citizens placed their newspapers, magazines and cardboard packaging. In addition the substantial improvement in the cleaning of the streets of greater commercial concentration is achieved.

The City Council of León, was launched in April this year a specific service of collecting door to door to paper and cardboard of the centers of government offices and other institutions, with the aim of recovering the role of disposing of these centres for recycling, which, according to statistics, the 50 kg per employee per year could be achieved. The service has weekly, is free of charge, and provided, among others, in various units of the own City Council.

On the other hand, the City Council of León will now extend this service to schools, including University buildings. Schools in the municipality of León have bins for the collection of paper in its facilities which are collected periodically. Among the measures envisaged in this area, the City Council will address improving staffing of buckets and containers on the premises of these centres, information campaigns to teachers and pupils and optimization of the system of collection. To support the municipal collection service, Aspapel will facilitate ecopapeleras of 100% recyclable cardboard as well as educational and informative material on the role and the recycling cycle. In this way, classes of Leon will be equipped with ecopapeleras school children will be identified as the place to pick up the paper and cardboard for subsequent recycling. Thus, under the encouragement and supervision of his teacher, the child is familiar with the custom of depositing your paper and cardboard already used and becomes aware of their ability to contribute with a simple, everyday gesture to the improvement of the environment and sustainable development.

In the framework of the plan of continuous improvement, the City Council shall establish measures to require mandatory that both companies located in polygons industry and business in the central market and the municipal markets, to separate and selectively pick up the paper and cardboardeither through a private management well developing a municipal resolution.

Finally the León City Council provides for the optimization of the system of monitoring and statistical Control of the data of selective collection of paper and cardboard, a breakdown of the statistical information by channels of generation (blue container, door to door, clean points, offices and schools).