This news article was originally written in Spanish. It has been automatically translated for your convenience. Reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate translation, however, no automated translation is perfect nor is it intended to replace a human translator. The original article in Spanish can be viewed at A 162 kilos por segundo

Spain recycles 5,1 million tonnes of paper and cardboard in 2011, figure only surpassed in Europe by Germany

To 162 kilos by second

Editorial Interempresas27/06/2012

The industry papelera Spaniard recycles 162 kilos of paper every second. With 5.093.800 tonnes of paper and cardboard used recycled in 2011, situates like the second industry papelera more recicladora of Europe, surpassed only by Germany and with the same volume of recycling that France or Italy.

The recovery and the recycling in Spain: the reason of a success

In Spain the development of the systems of collected of paper and cardboard is a clear case of collective success: the collaboration of the administrations and the industry and the active and increasing participation of the citizens have made possible that in 2011 collected for his recycling 4.722.500 tonnes of paper and cardboard, more than the double that does only fifteen years. We collect already for his recycling 73,5% of the paper that consume, what allows us codearnos with the selecto group of the dozen of leading countries all over the world that surpass the tax of 70%.

The systems of collected besides autofinancian with the pertinent income of the sale of the paper recovered to the factories papeleras that recycle it and with the contributions of the green point.

Table 1.

The big capacity recicladora

Supporting this success in the collected, the industry papelera Spanish has gone increasing his capacity recicladora, investing in new and better installations, that allow him guarantee the recycling of all the paper and cardboard that collects in Spain and go always by in front to absorb the successive increases of the collected.

The paradoja

Gives the paradoja that while the collected global of paper and cardboard in Spain in 2011 regarding 2010 goes up 1,8%, the collected selective municipal descends around 8,5%. The collected global includes so much the collected selective municipal, realised by the municipal services through the blue container, door to commercial door and clean points and downloaded in warehouses of recovery authorised, like the collected realised by private operators in big surfaces of distribution, industries, printers, etc.

The collected selective municipal in cities of more than 100.000 inhabitants

In the big Spanish cities, the ones of more than 100.000 inhabitants, the collected selective municipal of paper and cardboard experiences a descent still more accused, with falls generalised in the big majority of the municipalities and a half descent of 15,7%. And this fall generalised is especially important in the biggest cities: the descent in the volume of the collected selective municipal is of 24% in the cities of more than half million of inhabitants (with special incidence in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia), while in the cities of between 200.000 and 500.000 inhabitants is of 12% and in the ones of between 100.000 and 200.000 inhabitants is only of 9%.

Causes of the fall of the collected selective municipal

The cause of this fall can attribute it to two appearances of the economic crisis and his social consequences, that have had special incidence in the collected of the paper and pertinent cardboard of the homes.

By a part, as it occurs on time in periods of crisis, the thefts of paper of the blue containers affect of significant way to the collected realised by the municipal services, especially in the big cities.

On the other hand, the total consumption of paper, considering all the types of papers (graphic, packagings, hygienic, special uses, etc.) kept in 2011 in similar levels to the previous year (-0,3%). However, the graphic papers (periodic, magazines, brochures, folios…) registered a fall of 5,9%. And precisely the graphic papers -that in the total consumption suppose 29%- represent around 60% of the collected domestic of paper and cardboard used through the blue container.

The citizen collaboration continues

The reality is that independently of this contextual situation, the citizen collaboration keeps . But it does not fit the lower doubt that the thefts in the containers of paper have negative effects in the services of collected selective municipal, that with so much success come working thanks to the effort of the city councils and to this collaboration of the citizens.

The reinforcement of the ordenanzas municipal and of the services of surveillance are some of the measures that the city councils can put in practice to avoid the deterioration of the quality of the service of collected and the desmotivación of the citizens that this situation could cause.

Table 2.

Ranking Of collected selective municipal of paper and cardboard in big cities

The Mancomunidad of Saint Marcos (San Sebastián), the Mancomunidad of the Region of Pamplona and the City council of Bilbao occupy in 2011 the pódium of the collected selective municipal in big cities of more than 100.000 inhabitants, followed of Vitoria, Tarragona, León, Logroño, Fuenlabrada, Sabadell and Salamanca.