- The pilot test initiated in the urbanisations of Les Fonts, Los Molinos and Racó de Nadal has shown great results, increasing the separation rate from 12% to 80%.
- Benitatxell is the only municipality of the 52 municipalities in the province of Alicante belonging to the Consorci Mare de Residus that will pay a lower rate in 2025 compared to the previous year.
The ‘Door to Door’ waste collection system has proved to be a success in the areas of El Poble Nou de Benitatxell where the first pilot test was set up. The urbanisations of Les Fonts, Los Molinos and Racó de Nadal went from a separation rate of 12% to 80% in just a few weeks. And this good dynamic is what is also being pursued in the town centre, where this method will be implemented from February 2025 onwards. Later on, the outlying areas will also be gradually included in this system.
Door-to-door collection consists of leaving waste outside the front door, on certain days and at certain times for each waste fraction, which includes organic waste, paper and cardboard, packaging and plastic, glass and other waste. For four nights a week, users will have to leave two types of waste at their doorstep, depositing them in their corresponding bins.
The Council, through the municipal public company Poble Net, will distribute a kit free of charge to all neighbours in the town centre, approximately 1,200 homes. The pack consists of two plastic bins with a closing system, one exclusively for organic waste and the other for alternating the other fractions according to the calendar; organic bags, a calendar specifying which fraction will have to be collected each day during 2025 and a leaflet explaining the system and the food and products that go in each bin. All the details will be sent by letter to all the participating homes next January and, in addition, several explanatory meetings will be held.
The bins are equipped with QR technology and a reader that allows each user to be identified, and when the separation is not done correctly, the staff in charge of the service will get in touch with the neighbour to explain, through individualised attention, what needs to be improved in order to carry out the system properly. This system also enables participation and separate collection rates to be monitored.
Door-to-door has proven to be the most efficient separate collection system. In general, the numbers are between 60% and 80% of selective collection, which guarantees that the objectives set by European regulations will be achieved. At the same time, the cost of waste disposal will be lower, as less waste (residual waste) will be sent to the Consorci Mare de Residus landfill; and the income from the management of recyclable materials will be higher. This will help to balance the rate. In addition, the image of the town will be improved, eliminating the problems associated with the containers.
The good results of Door-to-Door
Numbers already show the good results of Door to Door in those areas where the system was introduced in 2023, where a separation rate of 80% has been achieved. And this has already resulted in a reduction in landfill costs at the Consorci Mare waste separation plant of El Campello.
Last October 4th, the financial contributions to be made in 2025 by all the member municipalities of the Consorci Mare were approved. Of the 52 towns in the province of Alicante, Benitatxell is the only one that has seen a reduction in this contribution compared to 2024, a fact that shows, according to the councillor responsible of Waste, Javi Cabrera, that ‘we are going in the right direction’.
‘We are doing a better waste management, firstly, with the introduction of the organic fraction and, secondly, with the increase in the collection rates of paper and cardboard, light packaging and glass. With the introduction of the town centre to this system we hope to continue to improve the separation rates and achieve, little by little, the values set by European regulations in all areas of the municipality’. In other areas, such as the Cumbre del Sol macro-urbanisation, work is being carried out on other collection methods, which will soon be announced to the neighbourhood.