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Absolute failure of recycling in their country is highlighted by a coalition of 26 groups that filed a complaint with the European Commission. They argue the target for waste reuse and recycling will top out at 24.3% of total production, well short of the 50% goal set for 2020. They also condemn the transportation of 11 million tons of waste each year to landfills, an amount likened to 800 football fields, or about one kilogram per person daily.
Representatives from Ecologistas en Accif3n, Greenpeace, and Friends of the Earth described the situation at a Madrid press conference as a failure of Spains waste management system and subsequently submitted the complaint to the European Commission the previous Monday.
Spokespersons from the filing groups stated that they have spent years exposing noncompliance, very low recycling rates in both quality and quantity, the absence of prevention and reuse policies, delayed guidelines, and laws that fail to be enforced.
spokesperson for the coalition, Carlos Arribas of Ecologistas en Accif3n, noted that the EC has little choice but to open a case and possibly take the matter to the European Court of Justice, while acknowledging that some autonomous communities manage better.
Artwork caption: A graph showing separation of garbage and an image of ecologists at work.
The filing groups argue that waste management in Spain needs an urgent course correction and they requested EC protection to effect decisive change.
They warned that without disruptive policies in sight, progress will stall and data will continue to look bleak.
Recycling figures
Eurostat data indicate that Spain reached 40.5% reuse and recycling in 2020, a figure that slipped to 36.7% the following year.
Their spokesman Arribas explained that biostabilized waste cannot yet be counted as recycled, meaning that only about a quarter of waste, 24.3%, presently qualifies as recycled.
European directives have long criticized Spain for delays and for laws that are not fully enforced, alongside low recycling rates in both quality and quantity and the absence of robust prevention and reuse policies.
According to the information provided, the Ministry of Environment aims for a 55% recycling rate by 2025 and 60% by 2030.
Only 20% of the population sorts garbage
Arribas remarks that only one in five people directly sorts waste, with 80% of the waste collected in mixed streams. He says this situation must change.
He also noted that 80% of collected garbage arrives at storage facilities in a mixed form and urged municipalities to increase the number of sorting containers.
Artwork caption: a container image attributed to Greenpeace.
Miquel Roset, director of Return, estimated that 11 million tons of waste are sent to landfills annually in Spain – an amount he describes as filling large sports stadiums, equivalent to about one kilogram per person per day – and he warned that these sites pollute natural spaces and threaten public health.
Eva Salda, director of Greenpeace, called the situation a distress call, noting that it has stagnated for years and is worsening rather than improving.
Before the December 27 packaging Royal Decree, Salda described the Popular Party’s goals for prevention, reuse, and recycling in Parliament as very ambitious.
According to Salda, a tactic of blocking progress undermines the ability to rely on Waste Law compliance and related regulations.
Demand for real solutions and concessions
Blanca Rubial, coordinator of Friends of the Earth, pointed to concrete steps the Government should take, including commitments and real measures that reduce waste generation.
Rubial also urged ending uncontrolled discharges by separating organic waste and extending product lifetimes through clear corporate standards.
She called for greater reuse and for preventing waste from being transported to southern countries, framing this as a matter of global justice and aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The filing groups include environmental NGOs from across Spain and from the Balearic Islands, Navarra, the Basque Country, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, and Galicia.
a0Among the organizations listed are Climate Action, Adacis, Friends of Earth, CEPA, Clean Ocean Project, Ecologists in Action, Catalan Zero Residue Strategy (ECRZ), Eguzki Zaleak, Ekologistak Martxan, FAVB, the Federation of Ecologists of Catalonia, Fundacif3 Deixalles, GOB Mallorca, Greenpeace, Gurasos, Itsas Gela, Lurra Nafarroa, Mar de Fe1bula, Per la Mar Viva, Red Ecofeminista, Returns, Rezero, Surfrider, Sustrai Erakuntza, USO, and Verdegaia.
A full report is available as a document published by Ecologistas en Accif3n, with attributed data from their 2023 release.
The environmental department may be contacted via a public repository for further information, though direct contact details here have been removed.