Several municipalities across Catalonia are reversing their door-to-door waste collection programmes, with local officials citing low resident engagement and practical challenges. This move marks a departure from recommendations by the Catalan Waste Agency (ARC) and the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), which advocate for the system to improve recycling rates and meet European standards.
Corbera de Llobregat, in Baix Llobregat, saw a significant political shift linked to the programme. An unnamed source familiar with local politics noted that ERC and CUP, who formed a government with ten councillors in 2019, dropped to four councillors combined in 2023, losing the mayoralty to the PSC. The source attributed this change directly to the door-to-door system.
Mayors Cite Resident Rejection and Practical Issues
La Garriga, in Vallès Oriental, is another town that had adopted the door-to-door model across its entire municipality but is now changing course. Mayor Meritxell Budó (Junts), who also chairs the Catalan Association of Municipalities (ACM), explained, "We are changing the model. We always understood that door-to-door across the whole municipality would not quite work." Budó expressed disappointment that "residents have not believed in it and have not made it their own," a reaction similar to one seen in Barcelona's Sant Andreu neighbourhood in 2021. She highlighted the challenge in denser areas, stating, "We went from emptying 6,000 bins to 60,000."
La Garriga is now implementing a mixed system, using smart containers in denser areas and maintaining door-to-door collection in urbanisations. A similar situation occurred in Sant Celoni, also in Vallès Oriental. Rosa Boladeras (PSC), Mayor of Corbera de Llobregat, echoed Budó's sentiments, confirming that her town has kept door-to-door collection in urbanisations but replaced it with standard containers in the urban core because "it did not work." Boladeras acknowledged that resident rejection arose in a context of "narrow pavements and bins falling over." She added, "We have to make it easy for people, but sometimes you have to try things to see that they do not work."
Regional Impact and Cost Implications
The rejection of door-to-door collection, as described by Budó and Boladeras, has also been seen in other municipalities, including Vic (Osona) and the Penedès-Garraf Commonwealth, which comprises 27 municipalities in Alt Penedès, six in Garraf, and two in Baix Penedès. David Martínez, head of Waste Services for the Commonwealth, explained that they manage two waste collection contracts.
One contract, from 2022, covers five municipalities that chose door-to-door collection and include some of Catalonia's best recycling rates, such as Sant Pere de Riudebitlles and Torrelavit. A second, recently deployed contract offered both door-to-door and smart container options equally. Martínez stated, "We technically and politically validated both models, and the municipalities themselves decided." The decision by these councils was to pool resources for smart container services, even though previous municipal governments had opted for door-to-door.
Citizen consultations were held to inform these decisions, such as in Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues (Alt Penedès) in 2023. Out of 370 votes, 230 residents chose smart containers, while 121 preferred door-to-door. In Vic, municipal sources cited "difficulties in identifying bins or problems with anti-social behaviour" as reasons for not expanding door-to-door collection across most of the municipality, where open containers are common. Currently, this collection model is limited to four residential and isolated neighbourhoods: la Guixa, Sant Llàtzer, Quatre Estacions, and Serra-de-senferm.
Sources from the ARC remind councils that poorer recycling and higher generation of residual waste will lead to increased waste collection fees for residents. Vic municipal sources currently "rule out applying the smart container system due to reasons such as the high cost of its technology and that it is not considered mature enough to provide a good response to the generation-based fee." Instead, Vic aims to promote good waste separation habits through recycling courses and public awareness campaigns.
