Last year, 5,9% more of these household containers were sent for recycling than in 2021, which became raw material to produce new products or packaging.
Each citizen collaborated by separating 20,1 kg of packaging in yellow and blue containers and bins in 2022 to make their subsequent recycling possible.
Recycling of packaging in Spain began 25 years ago, with the arrival of the law that promoted the selective collection of this waste. Today, in the Region of Murcia there are 15.133 yellow and blue containers in which recycling can be done.
The contribution to the circular economy through packaging recycling continues to gain ground among Murcians, ensuring that more and more packaging can be converted into new raw material to create other products such as textiles, urban furniture, pipes and new packaging. In fact, in 2022 in the Region of Murcia, 50.935 tons of household plastic, metal, cartons, paper and cardboard packaging were sent to recycling facilities to be recycled and given a new life, 5,9% more than the previous year. These data, which, together with those of the rest of the country, are reported annually to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, consolidate the data on total recycled packaging - industrial, commercial and domestic - that Spain reports to Europe.
By type of material, of the 50.935 tons recycled, 20.667 tons were plastic containers; 21.280 were paper and cardboard; and 8.989 were metal containers.
Of the total number of tons of recycled packaging, 27.734 came from packaging that citizens separated in the yellow and blue containers on the street and in the coloured bins installed in places with a high influx of people, such as theme parks, airports, football stadiums, offices and bars and restaurants. The remaining amount was recovered from the waste collection plants, where all types of waste arrive without being separated.
In fact, citizen involvement is essential for the recycling process. The separation that citizens do in their homes and other spaces is the first step in a long industrial process that ends in a recycling facility, which is what converts waste into new raw material. Thus, in 2022, each Murcian separated 20,1 kilos of plastic containers, cans, cartons and paper and cardboard to make their recycling possible. These data are in line with the objectives set by the new national and environmental legislation to improve the quantity and quality of the separation that citizens carry out.
For this reason, and despite the fact that this habit of separating for recycling is well established, the objective is that every year the citizens of the Region of Murcia do it more and in a better way. To do this, it is essential that they have infrastructure and services that make this task easier for them, such as the 8.471 yellow containers and the 6.662 blue ones that are on the street, as well as the more than 2000 coloured bins available in other spaces.
"The contribution to the circular economy through recycling of packaging continues to gain ground among Murcians, ensuring that more and more packaging can be converted into new raw material to create other products such as textiles, urban furniture, pipes and new packaging, thus giving it a new life," said the Director General of the Environment, Francisco Marín.
«We are clear that one of our main objectives is to make recycling easier for the people of Murcia. For this reason, we carry out different initiatives to bring selective collection of packaging wherever they are, for example with the installation of more than 660 yellow and blue bins in public buildings, or at local events and festivals, such as El Bando de la Huerta or the Mar de Música festival in Cartagena», said Juan Carlos Arranz, manager of Ecoembes in the Region of Murcia. «Throughout 2022 we have continued to promote our RECICLOS incentivised recycling project to encourage the recycling of plastic beverage cans and bottles, which already reaches more than 474.000 citizens in the region», added Arranz.
Thus, thanks to the contribution of the Murcians, last year 1.627.313 tons of packaging were sent to recycling facilities nationwide. In this way, the consumption of 21,46 million m3 of water and 6,72 million MWh of energy was saved, in addition to avoiding the emission of 1,69 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. In 2022, it was also highlighted that 20% of domestic plastic packaging placed on the market incorporated recycled material, thus promoting its circularity.
Recycling packaging, a habit that has been with us for 25 years
This year marks 25 years since the law that promoted recycling of packaging in Spain was passed. Since then, both the citizen commitment to the recycling habit and the infrastructure have made great strides, ensuring that more and more packaging is recycled. In fact, in the first year of selective collection in the region, the tons of packaging recycled were 12.676, a figure very far from the 50.935 tons reached in 2022.
Thus, over the course of this quarter of a century, a great effort has been made to improve infrastructure, such as the number of containers or the selection plants - 3 of them in the Region of Murcia - as well as to raise awareness and teach the population about what to put in each container and the importance that the simple act of recycling has for the environment, with 4 out of 5 Murcian citizens already declaring that they separate their containers on a daily basis.
However, despite these advances, there are still areas where improvements can be made to increase citizen collaboration in the separation of packaging, in line with the new goals set by national and European legislation. For example, there are still citizens who do not separate small or metal containers such as cans and aerosols in the yellow container, or who confuse this container with the plastic container and deposit toys, chairs and even textiles in it, complicating the sorting work carried out by the sorting plants, which are only prepared to separate packaging.
Furthermore, steps can still be taken with the recycling of other types of waste that, until now, have not had mandatory separate collection, such as textiles, organic matter or commercial and industrial packaging. In fact, the objectives set in terms of recycling for the coming years focus on increasing the recycling of all types of waste, whether domestic or not. Likewise, it is necessary to increasingly prioritize reduction and responsible consumption and reuse as alternatives prior to recycling.
