Five key points that should guide the new waste law and empower citizens towards a real transformation
- With the recently approved Draft Waste Law in the Council of Ministers and the consultation on the Royal Decree on Packaging and Packaging Waste, Spain decides whether to seek a real change towards zero waste and the circular economy or continue to protect the interests of the industry that promotes and defends the production and consumption model based on 'use and throw away'.
- After a meeting with the Secretary of State Hugo Morán and his team, the Zero Waste Alliance, of which Ecologistas en Acción is a part, reaches out to the Executive to implement ambitious policies that include the elimination of unnecessary products, the promotion of the reuse of packaging, hygiene and textile products, the durability of consumer products, the deposit system for beverage containers and the massive and quality recovery of organic matter.
After the latest movements of the Spanish executive, we find ourselves in a very interesting political framework to make a satisfactory ecological and energy transition a reality. During the last month, Spain has begun to advance at a regulatory level on the path towards zero waste and the real circular economy. Now, the push by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge for this more than necessary transformation seems, for the moment, lacking in ambition.
The members of the Zero Waste Alliance, including Ecologists in Action, value that, if a transformation of the production model is truly sought that eliminates all environmental damage and enables the creation of wealth and employment in a sustainable manner, half measures or objectives that remain halfway. As a society, we must prioritize putting life at the center of our political and economic actions and, therefore, the focus must be on the complete life cycle of products, in a way that allows preserving resources and closing the circle.
To this end, the Zero Waste Alliance requests a decisive positioning from the executive that includes the FIVE STRATEGIC LINES that we propose to prioritize the well-being of citizens and the promotion of a diversified and sustainable economy:
- Facilitate the right and access to consume products that do not need packaging (packaging, capsules, etc.) and that end up becoming waste that is neither reused, recycled, nor composted. In this way, the cost that we citizens unfairly pay will be avoided and we will have it assumed by the industry, which is the one who puts the unnecessary and polluting product on the market.
- Ensure a wide offer of reusable and toxic-free products and elements, such as beverage bottles or refillable glass food containers or hygiene products such as menstrual cups, cloth pads or razor blades with replacements, among others. other elements.
- Offer the security of being able to buy products that last over time and that can be easily repaired, as well as prohibiting products that are not reusable, recyclable or repairable and planned obsolescence. Also open the discussion on waste that has been left or forgotten (furniture, mattresses or plastics for agricultural use, for example) or postponed in time (textile waste).
- Immediately enable a Deposit System that allows citizens to return beverage containers to commerce so that the 30 million cans, bottles and cartons that are lost every day in Spain can be reused and recycled instead of ending up polluting our environment.
- Imminently implement the separate collection of organic matter by associating with an educational program that deploys the potential of decentralized composting throughout the country as the best option, not only for its management but also for the necessary regeneration of our soils. Favor for this collection transparent and/or individualized systems of proven success such as 'Door to Door' or the 'fifth closed container'
The Zero Waste Alliance considers the willingness for dialogue on the part of those responsible for the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge to be positive. For this reason, its members reiterate their commitment to collaborate in a real transformation towards prevention, reuse and quality recycling instead of perpetuating the solutions and interests of the same industry (supermarkets, packagers and waste managers) that generates the problem.
Vice President Teresa Ribera herself has declared herself alarmed by the increase in single-use plastics, especially during the pandemic. To achieve this transformation towards zero waste, the Zero Waste Alliance, through the five strategic lines that we propose, believes it is essential to incorporate the following measures and objectives into the regulations:
To avoid unnecessary products and elements, packaging reduction objectives of 50 % by 2025 and 80 % by 2030 must be established with a progressive tax managed by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge that does not disappear until the compliance with the established objectives. In this sense, the rate for disposable plastic containers proposed by the Executive is not enough since it will end up having an impact on consumers and will not encourage reuse.
To encourage bulk sales and a wide range of reusable products, financial aid and tax incentives must be established that encourage the use of these containers or products over single-use ones and set reuse objectives. There are many products that have the reusable option. As an example, reusable containers should correspond to at least 70 % of total beverage containers by 2030; menstrual products, diapers and wet wipes should be reusable at 30 % in 2030 or, textiles, should have a reuse target of 50 % by 2030.
Regarding beverage containers and their Royal Decree, a decisive commitment must be made to a deposit system for containers of water, soft drinks, juices and beer as of January 1, 2023. In the last three years, 14 countries and regions in the world, such as Portugal, have legislated in favor of returning cans and bottles to the store to put an end to their massive abandonment in the environment and to reuse and recycle more than 90 % of these containers.
Regarding the organic matter of municipal waste, it cannot wait until 2023 for its full implementation, the date must be brought forward to 2022. In addition, a target of 75 % of selective collection with less than 5 % of improper collection must be set. prioritizing more efficient systems such as 'Door to Door' or the 'fifth closed container'.
Regarding final treatments, there is an urgent need to establish a single state tax on landfilling and incineration. In the Spanish State we are taking more than 60 % of municipal waste to landfills. Only with the imposition of this tax, requested by the European Commission countless times from the Kingdom of Spain, can we make landfilling the residual “solution” and not the central one as now. In fact, this is what has happened in countries that have established this tax such as England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.