Por Pablo Arranz 
The Board of Governors approves the classification of proposals for pre-treatment equipment for 2.3 million and also expects the Contracting Board to pre-award the refining equipment for stabilized organic waste for another 2.4 million
Alicante, February 25, 2025. The Alicante City Council is finalizing the contracting and installation processes at the Alicante Waste Treatment Center (CETRA) for the new machinery to convert organic waste from the deployment of the brown container throughout the city into compost. The Board of Governors has awarded the pre-treatment equipment for 2.3 million and will soon do the same with the refining equipment for stabilized organic waste, whose classification has passed the proposal classification process at the Contracting Board, for an additional 2.4 million euros, bringing the total to nearly five million euros.
The City Council is driving the modernization of the Waste Treatment Center (CETRA) with an investment in machinery and process improvements to convert organic waste into compost and improve recovery, recycling, and valorization yields amounting to 17,172,773.07 €. The goal set by the municipal government team is to adopt a viable solution capable of treating up to 50,000 tons of organic waste annually.
The Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Environment, Street Cleaning, and Waste Management, Manuel Villar, highlighted that «we have been making investments over the past few years to renew the CETRA machinery with the purchase of new equipment and the renovation of the screening and waste treatment lines with an investment exceeding two million euros plus an additional three already planned for new machinery, in addition to the modernization of the biowaste line with nearly 13 million.»
«The Street Cleaning and Waste Management department has allowed us, through the improvement of facilities and treatment processes between 2019 and 2023, to reduce the waste rejection that arrived at the plant by 72 to 46 percent. And now, with the modernization of the treatment plant for biowaste, we will be able to produce high-quality compost for fertilizing fields and gardens,» Villar emphasized.
Refining of biowaste
In this regard, the Board of Governors of the Alicante City Council approved this Tuesday the classification of proposals vying for the supply and installation contract for machinery for the pre-treatment of the organic fraction from separate waste collection, with Industrias Leblan S.L. being the top-rated company with an economic offer of 2,351,535.78 euros, out of a tender budget of 2,760,351.22 euros.
Likewise, it expects to approve soon the purchase and installation of the new machinery for refining stabilized organic waste, whose classification has passed the proposal classification process at the Contracting Board, for an additional 2,390,721.90 euros presented by the UTE formed by Tamesur S.A. and Estudios, Dirección e Investigación en Fermentaciones Especiales S.A., out of a tender price of 2,691,862.80 euros.
This project by the Alicante City Council aimed at implementing a new organic waste treatment line at the Alicante Waste Transformation Center (CETRA) for its conversion into compost for agricultural and gardening use, is financed by the European Next Generation funds under the framework of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan.
Other investments
In addition, the supply of an optical separator for polypropylene packaging for the Alicante waste treatment plant has also been awarded to Tamesur S.A. for 198,825.69 euros. Additionally, new machinery has been acquired and installed recently for 906,277.90 €, consisting of a triple classification trommel and conveyor belts for the modernization of current treatment processes. At the same time, over the past year, the entire network of containers for various fractions for selective collection has been renewed, including the deployment of the brown container for organic waste throughout the city.
More recently, this same month, the Board of Governors accepted the feasibility studies from private sources as a preliminary step to the new tender for the management of CETRA, presented by the companies managing the current facility, but separately. On one hand, the one presented by Prezero includes a construction and operation project for a period of 20 years (2026-2046) with an investment of 93,197,000 euros; while the one proposed by FCC and Cívica is planned for a 14-year period (2 for construction and 12 for operation) with an investment of 54,209,578.25 euros.