Unfortunately Spain is lagging behind much of the rest of Europe with their recycling. According to Eurostat figures Spain recycled only 15 percent of its garbage in 2009, Germany ranked first by recycling half of its waste for that year. Fifty-two percent of Spain’s garbage is dumped in landfills, incineration accounted for nine percent and compost twenty-four percent.
If you are a community president, care about the environment and want to make sure that your community is doing their bit how can you encourage recycling in your community?
1. Make sure you have recycling bins near to your community to make it easy as possible for your owners to recycle. Speak to your Town Hall to find out how you can get a bin if you don’t have one. These are colour coded as following –
Green bins – general rubbish
Yellow bins – cans, briks (milk or juice cartons), and plastic bottles
Blue bins – paper and cardboard
Circular green bottle banks are for glass bottles
2. Inform your residents – If you already have bins but they aren’t being widely used, communicate with your residents via your noticeboard, flyers, emails or your community website to tell them about the benefits of recycling and encourage them to do it
3. Help your residents – There are excellent bin solutions for within the home where different coloured bins or bags can go under the sink or somewhere convenient so you sort your waste as you throw things away. Community Presidents can help their residents by bringing this and other recycling technology to their attention and offering to purchase this on behalf of the community. Here’s a selection of recycling bins we found online.
4. Find your nearest recycling centre and inform your residents – There are recycling centres in each area where citizens can recycle unusual and environmentally hazardous materials like paint, batteries and electrical appliances. There’s a recycling centre website where you can search for your nearest recycling centre. Why not arrange a trip and inform the residents so they can bring their materials to you?
Reduce your reliance on paper – minimize paper communications by using email or a community website for communicating with your residents. This can save a lot of paper over the year and is more efficient.