Spain suspends recycling: only four out of every 10 waste has a second life
Of the 467 kilograms of garbage that each Spaniard generates annually, only 38.6% acquires a second life. The rest, more than 13 and a half million tons of waste per year, goes directly to the incinerator or, mostly, to the landfill.. Spain is at the bottom of the large European countries in terms of recycling of urban solid waste (MSW): 10 points below the average of the twenty-seven and far from the 69% of waste that is reused in Germany, 58% of Netherlands or 52% of Italy.
According to a report published this Wednesday by the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie) together with the BBVA Foundation, Spain now recycles 7% more than five years ago and 32% more than 20 years ago, but it is still not close to the figures of urban waste recovery in which European countries have been involved for more than a decade. Eurostat data reveal that Spain's MSW recycling rate is even lower than what the EU average recorded 10 years ago, when four out of every 10 waste was already recovered.
Regarding total waste – MSW and waste from industrial and healthcare activities – the recycling rate rises to 48% in Spain, but is still ten percentage points lower than the average recorded in the European Union.
Thus, domestic waste is what hinders recycling the most in Spain. Only 7% of waste generated in homes is recycled, while three out of four end up in landfills and the remaining 18% are burned. Health waste, by its nature, is also at the bottom of recycling – only 13% can be recovered – and, despite being the material that concentrates environmental efforts, only two out of every three plastics acquire a second life.. On the opposite side, waste paper and cardboard, wood and glass have the highest recycling rates, while the textile industry improves in this aspect and three out of every four garments are already recovered.
To the queue in circularity
The implementation of the circular economy in Spain is going backwards. If in 2017 8.8% of products were made with recycled waste, in 2022 this proportion was 7.1%. Once again, Spain is far from the European average circularity rate – which is 11.5% – and from countries such as France and Italy in which almost one in five new products is obtained from recycled waste.
This is, in the opinion of the author of the report, Eva Benages, the main alarm that Spain faces.. “Competition for the extraction of raw materials is increasing, with higher and more volatile prices, and it is not in Spain's interest to continue being so dependent on the outside world,” he explained in statements to this newspaper, arguing that betting on the circular economy could be a good alternative to obtain raw materials without leaving the country. In addition to the environmental benefits, Benages has insisted that circularity represents significant economic savings, as it replaces the purchase of natural resources – increasingly limited – that are needed in production processes.
Money could be behind the failure of the implementation of the circular economy in Spain. Private investment allocated to activities related to waste reuse in the country exceeded 6.1 billion euros in 2021, which is equivalent to 0.5% of GDP, when the European Union average is 0.8%.. However, Spain is on par with its counterparts in terms of patents related to the circular economy, with more than 20 new ideas registered each year..
Furthermore, activities related to recycling generate thousands of jobs in Spain every year.. In 2021, 2.3% of those employed were employed in this sector, a proportion higher than the European average and representing more than 454,000 people, the majority of them working on R&D&I initiatives.. Thus, these activities represented a contribution to the Spanish GDP of 1.9%, almost 23,000 million euros..