Several municipalities across Catalonia, including Corbera de Llobregat, La Garriga, and Sant Celoni, are reversing or scaling back their door-to-door waste collection schemes. Local officials cite low resident adoption and practical difficulties as key reasons for the changes, despite recommendations from regional waste agencies.
In Corbera de Llobregat (Baix Llobregat), the political cost of implementing door-to-door collection was significant. An unnamed source familiar with local politics noted that the governing parties, ERC and CUP, saw their combined council seats drop from ten in 2019 to four in 2023, with the Socialists taking the mayoralty. The source attributed this shift directly to the door-to-door programme.
La Garriga (Vallès Oriental) had adopted the system across the entire municipality. 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 added that "residents did not believe in it and did not make it their own," a reaction similar to that seen in Barcelona's Sant Andreu neighbourhood in 2021. She criticised the increase from emptying 6,000 bins to 60,000, particularly in denser areas. La Garriga is now implementing a mixed model, using smart containers in denser areas and retaining door-to-door collection in urbanisations.
Local Challenges and Resident Rejection
Sant Celoni (Vallès Oriental) has experienced a similar situation. Corbera de Llobregat's Mayor Rosa Boladeras (PSC) echoed Budó's sentiments, stating, "We have kept door-to-door in the urbanisations, but in the urban core, we have changed it for normal containers because it did not work." Boladeras acknowledged that resident rejection arose in a context of "narrow pavements and bins that fell 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."
Sources from the Waste Agency of Catalonia (ARC) warned that poorer recycling rates and a greater generation of 'residual fraction' waste would lead to higher waste fees for citizens. However, the move away from door-to-door collection, as described by Budó and Boladeras, has been replicated 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 it manages two waste collection contracts. One, from 2022, covers five municipalities that opted for door-to-door, some of which have the best recycling rates in Catalonia, such as Sant Pere de Riudebitlles and Torrelavit. A second contract, recently completed, offered both door-to-door and smart container options equally. Martínez noted, "We technically and politically validated both models, and the municipalities themselves decided."
Municipalities Opt for Smart Containers
Despite previous municipal governments choosing door-to-door, the current decision by the municipalities was to pool resources for smart container services. Citizen consultations were even held, such as in Sant Cugat Sesgarrigues (Alt Penedès) in 2023, where 230 out of 370 residents voted for smart containers, while 121 chose door-to-door.
In Vic, municipal sources cited "difficulties in identifying bins or problems of incivility" as reasons for not expanding door-to-door collection to the main part of the municipality, where open containers are common. Currently, this collection model is limited to four isolated residential neighbourhoods: La Guixa, Sant Llàtzer, Quatre Estacions, and Serra-de-senferm. For now, the council "rules 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 fee," according to Vic municipal sources. They stated a commitment to promoting good waste separation habits through recycling courses and citizen awareness campaigns.
Moving forward, municipalities will continue to assess waste collection methods, balancing regional recommendations for improved recycling with local resident acceptance and practical implementation challenges. The shift towards mixed models or smart containers suggests a pragmatic approach to achieving waste management goals in Catalonia.
