Es crucial para el buen funcionamiento del proceso de reciclaje, sin la ciudadanía el proceso no puede funcionar

Spanish citizens are obliged by law to divide their household waste into the different bins available. In fact, 82% of households have at least two different spaces to separate their waste.

Meanwhile, technology is advancing and automatic sorting methods are becoming more and more sophisticated. If it can be done in this way, is it still useful, even in 2025, for citizens to take responsibility for separating their household waste manually?

Muy interesante pregunta y reflexión…optar por ese cambio supondría retroceder en lo conseguido hasta ahora en materia de concienciación o quizás un avance que deberia ir acompañado de nuevas medidas de concienciación, logisitca, etc

Gracias Sr. Pato

The waste collection service, unlike other essential public services such as water, electricity, gas, has a fundamental peculiarity: the producer/user is a fundamental actor, without whom the quality of the service and its objectives are compromised. I turn on the tap and water comes out, I press a button and the light turnes on, I turn on the stove and I can cook my food, no particular discipline is required on my part. Instead, if I don’t separate my waste starting from under the sink, no one will do it downstream for me. And not only will I produce a bad result for the overall performance, but the service will also be more inconvenient for me, regardless of the form of disposal.

All this, together with the natural discontent with the tariffs (common to other services), fuels distrust in the service and distances the user from its goals. So how can we avoid this short circuit?
It is necessary that:
1. the service is widespread, that it reaches all users and that it is usable, accessible and as convenient as possible.
2. the user is aware of the objectives that govern the choices of the service, it must be explained why we pursue maximum separate waste collection, that it is not a question of pinning a medal on your chest for global scale objectives that are difficult for him to perceive. These objectives must be traced back to his daily experience in terms of tariff, costs on the products he buys, environmental effects of the disposal plants and for the production of raw materials.
3. The user participates in the choices of the administrations, one of the most difficult challenges in a service characterized by extreme complexity and constraints that are difficult for the common citizen to understand and multiplicity of individual interests (typically the population is divided between those who want door-to-door and those who want the bin, those who want the service closer to home for convenience and those far away for decorum, etc.)

Among other themes we will talk about all this during the green innovation camp in Arezzo in October.