National Organizations and Organizations from different territories in Spain come together in a historic step to demand from Vice President Ribera and the Spanish Executive an urgent change of course.
European regulations required Spain to reuse and recycle 50% of municipal waste by 2020, an objective that the demand to the European Commission shows that it will not be met since it is below 35%.
February 11, 2020. In an unprecedented alliance, 16 social entities, both state and territorial, have demanded the Spanish State to the European Commission for non-compliance of the 50% reuse and recycling target in 2020 set by the European Union. The complaint, which has been accepted by the European Commission, is a historic milestone and is motivated by years and years of erratic policies, stagnant selective collection and recycling rates and total disinterest in promoting prevention and reuse, as detailed this morning by different representative people.
“All the surveys on the preparation for reuse and recycling in 2020 force us to think that in the Spanish State the objectives established by Directive 2008/98 / EC will not be met,” reads the demand filed by this group of groups. According to the latest data presented by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, the recycling of municipal waste in Spain stood at 35% in 2018. And, not only has this insufficient figure worsened in recent years, but also Spain has not implemented any of the policies that the Commission has been recommending in recent years to reach the 50% target in 2020. “Non-compliance is more than evident and is a clear symptom of inefficient waste management in Spain ”, the complainants have sentenced.
The list of signatories of the demand includes entities of different profiles and fields, such as the main environmental NGOs at State level, and also organizations from different territories such as the Balearic Islands, Navarra, Euskadi, Catalonia, the Canary Islands or Galicia, where the consequences are being suffered socially, environmentally and economically of such breach.
In their demand, beyond requesting that the European Commission admit their claim for processing, the entities demand an immediate change of course by Vice President Teresa Ribera, the main person in charge within the Spanish Executive. This 180-degree turn involves Transposing the new Waste Directives through a new participatory and ambitious Waste Law, with tools that ensure mandatory compliance with the new reuse and recycling targets.
Links of interest:
Signatory entities of the demand:
Amigos de la Tierra, Centre d’Ecologia i Projectes Alternatius (CEPA), Clean Ocean Project, Estratègia Catalana Residu Zero, Ecologistas en Acción, Eguzki, Grup Balear d’Ornitologia (GOB), Greenpeace, Gurasos, Mater Museoa, Lurra Nafarroa, Rezero, Retorna, Surfrider Foundation Europe, Sustrai Erakuntza y Unión Sindical Obrera (USO).