Redaccion
The Full Council also approves starting the specific modification of the General Plan to provide a new desalinated water tank for the supply of Playa San Juan, Condomina, and Albufereta, as well as the modification of credits worth 1.6 million euros to install a new biowaste treatment line at Cetra.
Alicante, March 27, 2024. The Full Council of the City of Alicante has overwhelmingly supported the final approval of the new Street Cleaning and Waste Management Ordinance. A total of 25 out of 28 councilors present voted in favor -PP (13), PSOE (8), and Vox (4)-, while the two from Compromís and the spokesman of EU Podemos expressed their opposition. The new municipal regulation toughens sanctions and strengthens inspection, while also introducing new regulations on the use and cleaning of public spaces and the selection of special waste such as rubble, household items, and pruning, to combat behaviors that affect the city’s image and coexistence. It is also the first document to establish an advanced regulation of selective household waste collection.
The Deputy Mayor and Councilor for the Environment, Manuel Villar, highlighted that «it is one of the most advanced ordinances in Spain» that incorporates provisions from higher regulations in the field and new regulations «establishing the guidelines that citizens and companies must follow in how they select waste at the source, as well as in its deposit for collection.» Villar also emphasized the regulation introduced in the use of public space in activities carried out by third parties to preserve its cleanliness and also for the correct selection at the source and collection of special waste such as rubble, household items, and pruning.
Manuel Villar, after thanking the contributions and support of PSOE and Vox to the ordinance, finally emphasized the fact that «despite the emphasis on the sanctioning regime to help compliance with the rules, it is important to consider all the new regulations established to keep public spaces clean and improve the city’s image, which citizens and companies must comply with.» He also noted that it «empowers and strengthens inspectors so they can carry out their control work more effectively.»
Surveillance and Awareness
The ordinance initially passed in the ordinary session of November, with the same voting pattern as in this Thursday’s Full Council, reinforcing inspection work and expanding the sanctioning regime with fines ranging from 300 to 3,000 euros and new cases increasing from 63 to 86 types of sanctions, to address the concerns expressed by users – through a survey conducted by the municipal service – such as the abandonment of rubble and household items, urinating in the street, or putting garbage in containers outside of permitted hours.
The Local Police has been strengthening surveillance of compliance with the ordinance, increasing fines by 80% in 2024 to 647 fines, compared to 360 in 2023. Moreover, special surveillance campaigns have been carried out, such as the one conducted in February where 100 sanction procedures were opened in 10 days, with 43% for rubble and household items, 19% for urinating in the street, 7% for not cleaning outdoor dining areas, and 6% for putting out garbage outside of hours.
In parallel, an information and awareness campaign has been launched under the slogan ‘Let’s Make Alicante Cleaner,’ which is already yielding results with a 39% increase in the collection of household items through prior requests via the Netial WhatsApp.
Other Aspects
The new regulation replaces the 2016 one and adapts to the latest European, state, and regional provisions in this area. The ordinance addresses all aspects related to urban cleaning, waste collection, and management, specifically including selective collection, as well as regulating for the first time the use of the Waste Transformation Center and the Eco-Parks Network. It also strengthens the powers of inspectors in controlling the service concession, compliance with waste selection at the source by individuals, and the issuance of inspection reports, as well as strengthening the sanctioning regime to combat illicit behaviors and infractions.
This ordinance also addresses more specifically than the previous regulation aspects such as cleaning and waste collection on beaches, outdoor dining areas, events in public spaces (concerts, demonstrations, etc.) – the latter requiring a plan and a waste management officer -, commercial and hospitality activity with separate waste collection and deposit in accordance with municipal regulations, as well as a more detailed review of the management of other waste derived from construction and demolition, pruning and gardening, or hazardous waste, among others.
It also includes a sanctioning regime, adjusted to what national and regional regulations dictate, with three types of sanctions, mild, severe, and very severe, ranging from 300 to 3,000 euros. The rule focuses on the issues that most concern users, based on a survey conducted by the service. Among them, the deposit of papers, bags, cigarette butts, chewing gum on public roads outside of containers and bins, depositing waste outside of established hours, or leaving household items and bulky items in public spaces without notifying the collection service, urination or defecation by individuals in public spaces, with the amount of current fines tripling in some cases.
Credit Modification
The Full Council of the City of Alicante has also given the green light to the funding to install a new line for the treatment of biowaste at the Alicante Waste Treatment Center (Cetra) and convert the organic waste from the deployment of the brown container throughout the city into high-quality fertilizer for agriculture and gardening. To do this, it has approved the amount of 1,600,309.72 euros for this purpose by approving this Thursday the corresponding modification of credits from the 2024 prorogued municipal budget.
The proposal for the agreement presented by the Councilor for Finance, Antonio Gallego, was approved with the 17 votes of the PP (13) and Vox (4), receiving majority support, against the 11 votes against from PSOE (8), Compromís (2), and EU Podemos (1).
New Drinking Water Tank
The Full Council of the City of Alicante has also approved the Specific Modification number 45 of the Municipal General Urban Planning Plan (PGMO) to allow the installation of a desalinated water tank in the Montepino area (Las Paulinas). The Councilor for Urban Planning, Rocío Gómez, explained that this is a 20,000 m³ tank that Aguas de Alicante has requested to install with the aim of improving the city’s supply, mainly in Playa de San Juan, La Condomina, and La Albufereta. The agreement was approved with the votes in favor of PP (13), Vox (4), and Compromís (2), and the abstention of PSOE (8) and EU-Podem (1).
Since the land where this desalinated water tank is intended to be installed is classified as non-developable, the City Council, through the Urban Planning Council, has initiated the procedures to modify the PGMO in order to classify the tank parcel as ‘general systems,’ with a dual category of services and infrastructure.
This modification also involves the delimitation of the access to the tank as a rural road, the demarcation of the filling and emptying pipeline layout to establish easements, the modification of articles 27 and 45 to clarify the execution criteria for these types of facilities on non-developable land, and the inclusion of a new article in the urban planning rules regulating the urban conditions and corresponding landscape integration measures.
