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BENITATXELL'S RUBBISH SERVICE: INSIGHTS THAT MATTER

© Poblenet
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  • Annual expenditure for waste collection, management and treatment (2024) amounted to 1.512.495€ (259,43€ per dwelling).
  • The budgeted revenue from the refuse collection service (2025) amounts to 990.000€.
  • Rubbish tax (2025) in the village 118,50€, outside the village 128,50€ and tourist dwellings 390€.
  • Estimated tariff deficit (2025): 522.495€ (89,62€ per dwelling).
  • Benitatxell has generated 2.357,35 (2023) tonnes of waste in grey (and green) containers (0,40 tonnes per dwelling/year) at a cost of 34,57€ per dwelling.
  • According to EU Directive 2018/851 from April 2025, revenue from rubbish tax must be sufficient to finance the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste. 
  • The Town Hall implemented a door-to-door home waste collection system in part of the municipality and created 14 collection points in Cumbre del Sol with containers for light packaging (yellow container), paper and cardboard (blue container), glass (green container) and waste (grey container) to encourage separation and recycling.
  •  Consorci Mare (waste management plant for 52 municipalities in Marina Alta, Marina Baixa and El Campello) charges a fee (2025) of 85,50€ excluding VAT per tonne of waste and subsidises municipalities that have implemented separate collection of organic waste.

Cost of the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste in Benitatxell

In 2023, according to data from the transparency portal of the Consorci Mare (1), 2.357,35 tonnes of waste were collected in Benitatxell from grey (and green) bins (0,40 tonnes per dwelling/year), representing 98.35% of the total waste generated and costing 201.553,43€ (34,57€ per dwelling) and 39,64 tonnes of organic waste representing 1.65% of the total waste generated costing 3.389,22€ (0,58€ per dwelling). The cost to the municipal coffers of the consortium's total waste fee amounted to 204.942,65€ (35,15€ per dwelling representing 13,54% of the total annual cost).

In 2024 (2) the annual expenditure for waste collection, management and treatment amounted to 1.512.495€ (259,43€ per dwelling).

The main expenditure items (2024) of the municipal company Poblenet are (11):

  • Technical services repair, conservation and maintenance: 504.595,57 €   
  • Urban solid waste collection services : 245.943,89 €  
  • Separate collection services: 226.692,35 €  
  • General services, administration and management: 154.618,04 €   
  • Ecopark services: 125.417,33 €  

As stated by the mayor of Benitatxell (3), the fee set for sending unseparated waste to landfill by Consorci Mare, the body that manages the urban waste of the 52 municipalities of Marina Alta, Marina Baixa and El Campello, is becoming increasingly expensive. ‘In 2021 we paid around 165.000€, and in 2022 this amount rose to 216.000€, more than 50.000€ in just one year. With the door-to-door home waste collection system we are getting ahead of what will come in the future: very high fees for not recycling and sanctions from Europe and, on the other hand, benefits for those municipalities that make an effort to do a good waste management, such as subsidies or income from the management of recyclable materials’.

The fee charged by Consorci Mare to the 52 municipalities that form part of the Consortium in 2025 amounted to €85.50 (4) excluding VAT per tonne of grey bin, with mixed waste from grey bins accounting for 93.20% of the total and organic waste (separate collection, either door-to-door or via the brown bin) only 0.53%.

According to EU Directive 2018/851 from April 2025, revenue from fees must be sufficient to finance the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste. 

According to Javi Cabrera, Councillor responsible for overseeing the collection, treatment, and disposal of waste within the municipality (13) “if the containers are not used correctly, for example, if everything (food waste, paper, glass, etc.) is thrown into the packaging container, this waste would be considered residual waste and a fee of  €85.50 per tonne applies. If we recycle well, packaging, cardboard, glass, Ecoembes, a bonus for this kind of waste is granted, although this is not very much. 

Consorci Mare is going to subsidise the organic fraction by approximately 40% (still to be determined) of the price per tonne. 

The separation of waste will also help us to avoid future sanctions, which will come..., if we do not comply with European regulations. At the last Mare consortium meeting we were told that sanctions have started to arrive at the state level and that now they will probably be passed on to the Autonomous Communities”.

We would like to recall that if the blue bins for paper or the yellow packaging bins have something different in them then the whole bin is "contaminated" and in the end we all pay for this through our taxes. The right way to recycle is:

  • BLUE BINS = paper and cardboard, books and newspapers. NO packaging foam or bubble wrap. NO plastic bags, NO liquid cartons eg milk)
  • YELLOW BINS = milk/fruit juice containers, plastic bottles with tops, shampoo and soap plastic bottles, empty cans of fruit, vegetables, fish etc, coke/fizzy drink cans, plastic bags. NO paper, NO kitchen rubbish.

Estimate of the deficit of the rubbish tariff in Benitatxell in 2025.

In 2025 the budgeted revenue of the waste collection service amounts to 990.000€ (5). If we take as a reference the annual expenditure for waste collection, management and treatment of 1.512.495€ in 2024, this would result in a tariff deficit of 522.495€ (34% of the total cost).

If we consider that the total number of dwellings in the municipality is 5.830 (6) an increase in the refuse charge of 89,62€ per dwelling or a similar reduction in the cost of the service would be required to eliminate the deficit.

Measures implemented by the Town Hall to correct the tariff deficit

  • March 2023: door-to-door home waste collection in Les Fonts, Les Molins, Racó de Nadal (10% of the municipality's population). The pilot test of the door-to-door waste collection system (paper and cardboard, packaging, glass, organic and other waste) consists of leaving waste outside the door at night on certain days and at certain times for each fraction. The municipal waste collection services collect the waste in the early hours of the following day. The home collection service has also been introduced in supermarkets, restaurants, bars and shops. The pilot test allowed the separation rate to increase from 12% to 80%.
  • September 2023: Increase of the rubbish tax for non-tourist dwellings by 18.5% to 118.5€ in the village and 128.5€ outside the village.
  • September 2023: Increase of the rubbish tax for tourist dwellings from 290% to 390€.
  • February 2025: The door-to-door home collection service is also introduced in the city centre (38% of the municipality's population).
  • April 2025: The relocation and unification of all recycling bins in Cumbre del Sol (30% of the municipality's population), which will be distributed in 14 collection points with bins for all fractions: light packaging (yellow bin), paper and cardboard (blue bin), glass (green bin) and waste (grey bin).

About El Consorci Mare

The Consorci Mare will grant bonuses to municipalities that have implemented the separate collection of organic waste, the fifth fraction, from 2025 (9) and will provide their local councils with direct bonuses for registered citizens who use the network of ecoparks (10), paying the bonuses to each council so that they can apply them to the waste tax of their neighbours.

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