Disposing of Debris for Recycling

As much as we tried we had to get rid of some stuff like partition walls and broken floor tiles. When clearing materials like this it’s important to dispose of them correctly. Here in Barcelona they have a bag service system where you buy 1 m3 bags, fill them with your waste and the company will come and pick them up to dispose of it properly. The price of the picking-up is included in the price you pay for each bag. It has the phone number printed on the bag so all you have to do is call them up for them to collect it. This avoids people dumping rubbish in illegal places. When looking for debris bags, make sure they reuse their bags, minimizing waste. Also check with them what they actually do with the waste they collect. We found ‘Los Sacos Marrones’ (The Brown Sacks), a company that reuse their bags and recycle (in construction for example) most of their waste.

Debris deriving from construction generates 136 million tons of waste per year, which is 1 kilo of debris per person per day, making it one of the biggest environmental problems of the planet. [via TreeHuggerTV]

(images from Ecologístas Valle de Alcudia)