Recycling in Spain..Update...

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BENIDORM
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Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby BENIDORM » Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:39 am

In my area the local people seem to have become more conscious lately about putting items that can be recycled in the correct bins, infact the normal 'Basura' waste bins seem to be less full than previously.
I just wondered if this is the case in Your Area ?

I still find quite alot of discarded bottles etc when I'm out walking and when possible I retrieve them and put them in the recycling bins and I've seen other people including locals doing the same, so hopefully a 'Step in the Right Direction'..?

My only concern is that I've heard recent reports that some collected waste is still ending up in landfill...I hope not !

It's good to see that shops are now enforcing the 'pay for plastic bags' but personally I'd like to see the complete return to paper and cardboard packaging for foodstuffs, I remember as a child going to the grocers for butter/cheese cut to requirements and wrapped in greaseproof paper, bread wrapped in tissue paper and most drinks in returnable glass bottles and so on .....

Regards,
Gordon

olive
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby olive » Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:49 am

Mixed bag.

Only yesterday we took a carload to recycle and found the general waste( landfill) bin full of cardboad with the adjacent cardboard bin nearly empty. That was in Loja too. Wehad driven past another cardboard recycling bin as it was so full folk had just dumped theirstuff alongside.

I carry a 5 cent poly bag with me on dog walks specifically for discarded rubbish . Last weekend I found asack full dumped by agriculture workersfrom Adra that had been fishing for the weekend here. I know it was them as I spent over an hourhelping them with two punctures they had got.

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spanish_lad
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby spanish_lad » Mon Jul 30, 2018 2:14 pm

My parents taught me to recycle, and Ive been doing it for years, plastic, bottles, paper, cans etc. I always seperate it and put it in the right place. I would be quite miffed to find it all goes in together.. what would be the point of it all?
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gavilan
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby gavilan » Mon Jul 30, 2018 3:38 pm

around here there are all the recylcing bins spanish lad mentions but only one refuse lorry to collect it all ... so it does indeed all go in together ... but think of the cost of having separate vehicles to match the separate bins!

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spanish_lad
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby spanish_lad » Wed Aug 01, 2018 10:07 am

shame. now it feels like a waste of time :lolno:
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gavilan
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby gavilan » Wed Aug 01, 2018 11:46 am

didnt mean to depress you spanish lad ... we are out in el campo ... might be different where you are

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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby Gasman » Wed Aug 01, 2018 12:22 pm

In our bit of campo, we have general bins at the end of the road, but no recycling bins nearby, so whenever we go into town we do a recycling run with the back of the car loaded up. We put it in the special bins provided in town, of which there are various locations for the local folk and also within reach of the bars and industrial areas. The bins in our town are marked with various non-profit making organisation logos, not collected by the town rubbish section - that is just the general bins. So we HOPE we are doing our thing to some benefit. It is so rare that cardboard and other recyclables are seen in the general bins, that it is worthy of comment, not only by us Brits but by the locals too! I do think things are improving in Spain, and even picnic areas tend to be a darn sight more tidy than say 10 years ago!!

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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby TorreDelAguila » Wed Aug 01, 2018 1:29 pm

Better than they were, for sure - but take a look at the busy A-7206 winding its for 20+ rural km from Algarrobo to Competa. The drainage gully at the side of the road plays host to at least one discarded drinks can / bottle / packet / pot / ... for virtually every single metre of its length. All this is thrown from vehicle windows. A highways maintenance squad spends a week or so clearing it all every few months, only for it to be immediately replaced. Is anything going on between some folk's ears? Now, if we knew where they lived . . . :problem: :problem: :problem:
Chris

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gretch
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby gretch » Wed Aug 01, 2018 2:17 pm

Were we live, we often find just one of the recycling bins empty, meaning, they do get collected separately.

El Cid
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby El Cid » Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:10 pm

Our big recycling bins are picked up by a lorry with a crane and replaced with empty ones. The normal rubbish is collected by a different lorry.

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gerryh
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby gerryh » Wed Aug 01, 2018 4:15 pm

Certainly collected by different lorries where I live.
What happens to it afterwards might be different.
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby Manchesteral » Thu Aug 02, 2018 12:41 pm

The problem with recycling in many countries is the practical or in many cases non practical approach, many governments/local authorities view recycling as a necessary social chore rather than as a business opportunity. In all of Scandinavia Holland and Germany the entire recycling system is tended by private companies who actually make a handsome profit from it, the old adage is true "where there's muck there's money" there is no excuse for any developed country to have inadequate recycling systems !

BENIDORM
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby BENIDORM » Thu Aug 02, 2018 1:49 pm

Thanks everyone for your input and I guessed that it would differ regionally as do many other matters !

I've mentioned before that I was the MD of a recycling experiment in the early 1980's, ( 3 years ) I was asked by the local council because of my involvement with the antiques business ( house clearances etc ), and I did experiment with trying to recycle many different items, some very successful some not.
Glass/ cardboard/ paper/ metals/clothing are very recyclable , plastics much more complex and not helped by the contaminated items put in with them, I was talking to a driver who was collecting and he said that nearly every load contains soiled nappies and other unmentionables, not very pleasant for the staff !
Most of the companies involved with recycling are private contractors and where the councils are involved they are paid by the residents to collect the regular rubbish and the more that can be saved from having to go into landfill then the better for all of us..

For anyone who doesn't know ,the regular collections of clothing from your home are collected by private individuals, many sell on the collections to waste processors who sort the wearable items which are then sold all around the world, not donated to charities, however where a company states that they are collecting for a charity then they are supposed to donate an agreed amount to the charity, which is not easy to regulate.
As for charity shop donations, up to 75 % of the donated goods are sold off to the processing companies and this is more regulated, the shops are now much more fussy than they were about what they want in their shops...
As I stated earlier I tried recycling many items and the most difficult item was feather beds...I actually lost money after sending in nearly 10 tonnes of them, however we did recover hidden money in quite large amounts, it was impossible to locate the original owners so we were allowed to keep the money....so actually did make a profit...

So which is the heaviest ? ..a tonne of feathers or a tonne of steel ? :lol:

Regards,
Gordon

olive
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby olive » Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:32 pm

So which is the heaviest ? ..a tonne of feathers or a tonne of steel ?

Easy. At first I thought it was a trick question but it is the steel as it has 25% tariff on top as the world goes mad. :thumbup:

BENIDORM
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Re: Recycling in Spain..Update...

Postby BENIDORM » Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:02 pm

Olive,
At first I thought that you had given a trick answer, but of course you are correct, please award yourself 2 housepoints for your alertness.... :lol:

Regards,
Gordon


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