Organic waste collection started on 1 December in 3 new districts of the capital: Salamanca, Chamartín and Barajas. There are now 20 districts that separate this type of waste.
With this selective collection, Madrid City Council seeks to meet the objectives set by the European Union on waste: reusing 50% of urban waste or preparing it for recycling by 2020.
This implementation, which started in 2017 in 17 pilot areas of the city, will be completed in September 2020 with the addition of the Centro district.
Selective collection of organic waste prevents bad smells and greenhouse gas emissions; it reduces the volume of waste ending in landfill, increasing its useful life and makes selective collection of other forms of recyclable waste more effective.
As the public’s cooperation is essential for the success of this new system, Madrid City Council has launched an information and environmental awareness campaign about how this waste separation system operates.
This is aimed at homes, the concierges of buildings and residential communities, shopkeepers, the education community, municipal personnel and associations in the 8 districts which have adopted selective organic waste collection during the months of November and December. And for 8 months (November 2019 – July 2020), in addition to offering information on what waste should be placed in the brown bins, we’ll be answering any doubts the public may have and receiving their suggestions about this type of waste and about how the Council manages waste in general.
To achieve this, since November, a team of 16 environmental educators has been informing shopkeepers and concierges in these areas about the new system and putting up information posters at the entrances to residential buildings.
And again, in this campaign, we will hold question and answer sessions open to the general public, to associations and to groups, with information booths set up at different locations around these 8 districts. And, in January 2020, we’ll be starting our educational activities aimed at Infants, Primary and Secondary schools in the 8 districts.
If you live in one of these districts that recently joined, we invite you to check out all the information available on our website, to follow our Twitter account @AciertaOrganica, or sign up to our monthly newsletter here.
Use the bin with the brown lid, and … get organic waste right!