We must acquire awareness of selection and recovery. Nowadays, household waste contains quantities of certain dangerous substances which can have harmful effects on the environment and human health.

 

Consequently, European waste management policies have set out a hierarchy which, firstly, aims to reduce waste generation. It then provides for the reuse and recycling of rubbish along with energy recovery and waste disposal.

 

Citizens, as people who generate waste, play a central role in improving waste management through various actions; one fundamental action being to separate the different kinds of household waste correctly and subsequently deposit it in the appropriate place.

 

For everything that cannot be placed in rubbish containers, waste collection points have been created; waste collection centres for waste that does not have its own specific container in the street. These waste collection points play a significant role in this mechanism, in that they constitute the next step towards the recycling of household waste.

 

There is household waste such as domestic appliances and rubble which should not be thrown into the normal container. The most appropriate places to deposit them are these free collection centres called �waste collection points�, also known as �disposal areas�, �ecological depots�, �garbigunes� (or waste collection sites) in the Basque Country or �deixalleries� (container parks) in Catalonia.

 

Usually you have to take the waste to these places, which are managed by institutions or private companies, yourself. They are supervised areas. They are not rubbish dumps or warehouses: the collected products are then sent to centres where they are treated or recycled. Generally, they are equipped with various containers, of different shapes and sizes depending on the waste they are going to hold.

 

Thanks to the selective waste collection system through waste collection points, it is possible to reuse part of the material which comes from solid urban waste by recycling it. In this way, raw materials are saved and the volume of waste goes down. Furthermore, it is an activity which generates employment.

 

For these reasons it is important to eradicate uncontrolled household waste disposal, both in the case of voluminous waste and dangerous substances.

 

This type of facility does not accept industrial waste. For this reason maximum waste disposal limits are set per person and day. There are certain differences between the types of waste which are accepted, but you can usually deposit waste such as old clothes, electrical appliances, large containers, furniture, gardening waste, doors, frames, rubble, mattresses, bed bases, used kitchen oil, used car oil, batteries, car batteries, containers of poisonous or dangerous substances, fluorescent tubes, computers, televisions, etc in these authorised waste management areas.

 

In order for these waste collection points to work properly, citizens must take previously separated waste and place it in the appropriate container.

 

In order to resolve any doubts they may have consumers can ask the staff or call 010, the customer services number, where they can find out about the opening times of these selective waste collection facilities and the best way of getting rid of certain household waste free of charge. The majority of waste collection points open from Monday to Friday from eight o�clock in the morning until eight o�clock in the evening, and on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays from nine to two.

 

Some councils have a waste collection service, which means that residents do not have to transport it using their own vehicles. Some autonomous regions and provincial councils have set up mobile waste collection points for small towns so that they can deposit the waste they generate in them.