All domestic waste in Madrid has the same destination: Valdemingómez. However, once they enter the park, their future is divided between eight different treatment plants and the eighth of them was inaugurated this Tuesday. Specifically, Los Cantiles will be the plant in charge of transform the leftover residue of organic matter, known as digest, in fertilizer for green areas. The facility has the capacity to treat and transform 102,490 tons of waste into 37,000 tons of compost per year.
The operation of the new facility applies an automated composting technique by machinery controlled through artificial intelligencea pioneering procedure in Spain. In addition, the process is completely confined so that the air can only go outside once it has passed through the odor purification biofilters. “The Los Cantiles plant is covered to avoid noise, odors, emissions into the atmosphere and, with them, possible inconvenience to nearby neighbors,” said the delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, during the inauguration.
Although the organic matter is currently treated and classified at the Las Dehesas plant, the leftover waste was not being used. Now, the waste will be transported to Los Cantiles to, thus, close the circle transformation and use by converting them into fertilizer. Regarding the future of this fertilizer, the Environment delegate has stated that it will be used “for parks, gardens and green areas as an example of a circular economy.”
End incineration before 2035
Furthermore, both Almeida and Carabante have assured that the progress in Valdemingómez seeks to continue complying with the waste treatment regulations of the European Union and that, with these, they seek end waste incineration in the Las Lomas plant before 2035. The delegate has assured that, “for the moment”, it is necessary to continue with the Las Lomas incineration plant because “the European Union objective which establishes that 65 % of waste is recycled or reused and that no more than 10% of waste goes to landfill. “As soon as the 10% expected before 2035 is reached, The City Council will dispense with Las Lomasbut at the moment it is far from being fulfilled,” he continued.
Currently, the percentage of waste that goes to landfill reaches 40% and, to reduce this percentage, said area will present in the coming weeks a waste management strategy to “improve selective collection and raise awareness about purchasing decisions to generate less waste and move towards a circular economy.” The technique used in Las Lomas is used to eliminate non-organic remains and has been causing complaints from residents of neighboring neighborhoods for years due to the emission of polluting gases. and the bad smell.
Regarding this, Carabante has stated that, since 2018, complaints have reduced by 80% “thanks to the desolorization of the treatment plants.” Almeida has supported this statement by ensuring that, currently, complaints from the residents of Villa de Vallecas about Valdemingómez “are at historic lows.” “Waste management is essential in a large city like Madrid. We manage 1,200,000 tons of waste in Valdemingómez and it has become, without a doubt, a reference place for its techniques,” the mayor concluded.
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