The climate emergency and concern for the environment (from the increase in global temperature to drought; from pollution to extreme weather events) inevitably goes through a change of customs and habits of the citizen and by campaigns that take into account both individual and collective participation and party-taking, as well as the use of coercive measures or control over the most polluting companies. Is responsibility of the Administrationbeyond the good faith of the taxpayers, introduce these variables to reduce, as far as possible, the negative effects of the environmental crisis.
One of the most relevant points and one that affects daily life to a greater extent is that of Waste management. In the case of Catalonia, according to the most recent data, in 2022 there were about 4 million tons and more than half of this number were not recycled. In addition, 35% of the waste ends up in controlled landfills, an enormous amount of garbage accumulation that is presented as unsustainable now and for the immediate future.
Faced with a situation that is not new, but rather responds to an accumulation of historical nonsense, it is announced, by the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC)an entity dependent on the Department of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, a new regional regulation that, foreseeably, will be approved by the Parliament during this 2023, with the intention that this Catalan waste law has the maximum possible consensus, with the participation of all sectors involved.
Even though many of the measures advanced by the ARC will not have immediate effect, the will of the executive is that, from the first moment, the urgent need to act is activated, based on the awareness of the population. Among the new obligations that are foreseen and that will change the way of managing garbage, it is worth highlighting the implementation in all town halls of the selective collection methodeither by the system door to door (which is already underway in more than 300 small municipalities and is about to start in another hundred), either for the use of smart containers.
The objective is to put an end to the indiscriminate and irresponsible disposal of waste that makes rational recycling impossible in order to move to a selective collection by days and hours. The application of the law will be complicated in the cities, with logistical difficulties, but this is precisely the essential point for the measure to be fully effective. Other actions provided by law include a system of deposit, return and return of containersthe collection and return of tobacco butts waves taxes imposed on companies that use single-use containers that negatively impact ecosystems.
In another order of things, but closely related to environmental management, it is worth noting the statements of the ‘minister’ David Mascort regarding the water price. Both to face current needs and anticipating future scenarios, we have to become aware of an increase that will materialize in consumer receipts or through taxes. All this, as Isaac Peraire, director of l’ARC, has also warned, to provoke a change of mentality that will have to be done “in an empathetic, but drastic way.”