{"id":368999,"date":"2022-04-21T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=368999"},"modified":"2022-04-21T06:30:00","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T04:30:00","slug":"new-waste-law-must-end-spanish-more-trash-more-cash-waste-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/new-waste-law-must-end-spanish-more-trash-more-cash-waste-system\/","title":{"rendered":"New waste law must end Spanish ‘more trash, more cash’ waste system"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Read more about the countries in this project<\/span><\/a><\/div>
More about Spain<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Spain is grappling with an ever-growing mountain of waste, 64 percent<\/a> of which is plastic in terms of weight. Every year in this country, they go through 5 billion plastic straws, 1.5 billion disposable coffee cups and 207 million disposable packaging containers. With these numbers, Spain accounts for 10 percent<\/a> of all single-use plastic waste in the European Union. The country is (after Turkey) the biggest contributor<\/a> to plastic pollution in the Mediterranean and one of the top four plastic polluters in the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the fact that plastic is a major threat to the environment, cleaning it up also costs a lot of money. According to calculations by Eunomia Research and Consulting, making streets and coastlines plastic-free costs Spanish municipalities – and by extension taxpayers – 529 million euros per year<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EU directives<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

At present, these costs are still being paid for with public money, but under EU legislation, manufacturers of this packaging will have to start footing te bill for these sums from the end of 2024 onwards. Spain failed to meet the EU target of recycling 50 percent of its waste by 2020. The country stalled at 34.7 percent<\/a>. To give you an idea: the percentage in the Netherlands stands at 56.8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n