Landfills under pressure as rubbish piles up

SATURATION POINT: Landfills in the province face capacity problems.

The province of Valencia has serious problems with rubbish. It is predicted that by 2020 there will be a complete collapse of the landfill sites in the province.

However, already, in just two years, three of the nine operational sites will be completely saturated within two years, which include Dos Aguas, Xixona and Villena.

With the current flow of garbage and waste, the site of Dos Aguas, which serves as the main dump for the metropolitan centre of Valencia, will be full up in less than a year-and-a-half. Currently there are no incinerators in operation, which would have been used to reclaim energy in the burning process. Although the policy was previously offered as a solution by Isabel Bonig, former councillor for the region, it was flatly rejected by environmentalists because it would lead to higher levels of pollution. 

Large landfills have also been rejected for similar reasons and smaller ones have been accepted with a capacity of 65,000 tons. 

Environmentalists state that waste recovery processes are the answer, raising recycling from the current levels of 59 per cent to 70 per cent, which will elevate the issue at landfills. 

Last year, the inhabitants of the region generated 2.85 million tons of waste.

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