The practice of removing waste and storing it in dumps is no longer the norm. The solution of many communities is to incinerate the waste. The problem is the contamination caused. Ecological organisations criticise these plants for the dioxins that are released into the air. Their defenders, meanwhile, state that the scientific community has yet to demonstrate whether these dioxins are genuinely toxic.

In any case, defenders and detractors are united in the need to inform the population about recycling which in Spain is not yet normal practice: only 11% of waste is recycled, while 70% ends up in a dump. If recycling were more common, the amount of waste to be eliminated would be substantially reduced.

Burning of waste
The danger of these controlled urban waste combustion plants is a major talking point. Scientists are not agreed on whether these plants represent a danger to human health. For every three tons of waste incinerated, a ton of ash and toxic and dangerous remnants that must be stored in secure plants.

Spanish legislation ensures that the amount of dioxins and potentially dangerous compounds are controlled. The key is to burn the waste at high temperatures, thus complying with the legislation, with controls before and after the incineration.

In current dumps the waste burns by itself, in other words it ferments as a result of the warming up of organic material and lets of flammable methane. The defenders of incinerating plants claim that this natural combustion is more counterproductive than the controlled version because it occurs at low temperatures.

Incinerating plants
These are industrial plants that receive the waste, place it in a combustion chamber where it is burned at very high temperatures. The vapours and gases are then cleaned before being released through the chimney via a filter.

In the more modern plants the steam is harnessed to drive a turbine and generate electric energy which ends up on the general grid. In Spain, there are eight incinerators that produce energy using waste as a fuel. In Europe, countries such as France and Belgium use this alternative.

Did you know...?
-Our bin is made up of 44% of organic material, 21% of paper and cardboard, 15% of metal and plastic containers and tetra-briks, 7% of glass and the remainder of batteries, metal, wood, textiles, and so on.
-Batteries take 1,000 years to decompose.
-A ton of recycled paper prevents 15 trees from being cut down.
-Spain is the fourth country of Europe that most recycles glass. Glass is highly resistant and takes 4,000 years to disappear.