In recent years, Spain has evolved to make recycling an everyday gesture. According to the Kantar report for Ecoembes, 80.2% of households surveyed recycle, and the figure has been increasing in recent years. But what happens when we are on holiday? According to the experts consulted, the amount of plastic, metal, cartons, paper and cardboard containers increases, because we consume more drinks, order more takeaway food and buy sunscreen.
Recycling on holiday is just as important as recycling at home to ensure that waste is managed correctly. That’s why you’ve probably noticed that recycling is easier to do every summer at airports, stations, hotels and festivals around the country, as there are more and more coloured containers and bins. In Spain there are more than 630,000 yellow and blue containers, plus another 57,000 recycling points in places with a large influx of people.
Miguel Ángel Ramírez is the head of the Málaga Delegation of the Envera Group, which manages a large part of the waste generated by Málaga Airport. “We are an entity that was born from Iberia, created almost 50 years ago by workers, parents of children with disabilities. We work with this group, and one of our strongest sectors for their labour insertion is recycling,” he explains. Because of his work at the airport – they manage around 3,000 t of waste a year – he knows perfectly well that the content of the bins changes with the changing seasons. “First, by volume,” he says. In summer, more waste is collected, although at Málaga airport there is an increasing influx of passengers throughout the year. But if anything betrays the time of year, it is those “characteristic elements” that appear in the yellow container: “There are more plastic water bottles, soft drink cans and we find more sunscreen containers,” Ramírez points out. There are also more toys. However, although they may be made of plastic, they are not containers and are not thrown into the yellow bin, but into the grey bin or into the recycling centre.
Ramírez has witnessed the “efforts made to increase the number of selective collection points at airports every year.” In addition, when the high season arrives at Málaga airport “an additional collection shift is added, with four a day instead of three.” The real challenge, he maintains, is in education. “Not all of us behave outside the home as we do at home, but it is essential. What is being achieved at home must be transferred outside, to leisure time and when we travel,” he suggests.
Even if we go to a festival, an event of this nature generates “many, many, many tons of waste,” reveals Nuria Díaz, partner of EcoEvent, the company that helps some of the most famous festivals in Spain to design their sustainability strategy and to better manage their waste. “I can’t give you a reliable average recycling rate, because it depends a lot on the type of festival and the beverage supplier it uses, but in one with around 20,000 people, between light packaging, paper and cardboard, between 4-5 tons are collected. It’s a lot,” she points out. For this reason, she is of the opinion that we cannot “forget” to recycle when we leave home. “The public has to be aware that this ‘one bottle doesn’t matter’ thing doesn’t apply. It’s your bottle, the other’s, the other’s…” she reflects. The good thing, she says, is that “you can see that the new generations have grown up with recycling.”
It is also important to raise awareness among organisers. “Event promoters have to take responsibility for the waste they generate, and the fact that Ecoembes has been facilitating selective collection for so many years (I met their technicians in 2015) has meant that they cannot go back now,” he points out. To facilitate selective collection, EcoEvent also carries out training with waiters and food trucks. “At first they are reluctant, they tell you that they work piecemeal. But when you optimise their recycling separation they tell you that they now have a much cleaner and tidier station.”
Different cubes
Selective waste collection is also essential for accommodation. Toni Barceló, president of the Balearic Islands’ tourist rental housing association (Habtur), has seen how the recycling rate has increased in holiday rental establishments thanks to the Ecohoster initiative. “We have put all the bins in place, a deposit has been set that is only returned if tourists recycle correctly, and there has been a lot of emphasis on information,” he says. In just a few months, recycling rates have reached 90%.
One of the difficulties when it comes to improving the separation is that “there is no unified recycling system in Europe; different colours may be used for each bin. In some countries, cans with glass are recycled and in others, cans go in one place and plastic in another. It has had to be explained very well, but now almost all tourists recycle.” One of the advantages of working in the Balearic Islands, she says, is that people who come to her accommodation are already aware of this: “They have chosen to book here and not in one of the big chains because they are looking for another type of tourism. At first it shocks them, but they quickly understand the importance of these gestures.”