Transforming waste collection in Barcelona

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This project is a good example of how to deal with the challenge of reducing CO2 emissions by incorporating these types of services into the urban space of a city in a pleasant way, without causing inconvenience to citizens, or hindering urban traffic mobility, without noise or odours, but that instead contributes to making a city an attractive place to live, work, and enjoy.Jordi Campillo, Ecology, Urban and Mobility General Manager, Barcelona City CouncilThe new municipal infrastructure has been built underground and comprises two floors with a total area of 2 400 m2. The lower floor is used to transfer and compact the 15 tons of waste collected every day from the district’s streets, pavements, parks and squares.It also houses geothermal equipment, parking spaces for the street cleaning trucks and charging facilities for a fleet of electric vehicles. The upper floor contains the control room, various storerooms and a classroom for training.Serving the communityIn addition, the building has a 3 000 m2 ‘green roof’ planted with native trees, flowers and shrubs, which has been designed as an urban park for local families. The roof also includes a children’s playground, seating and a drinking water fountain.The Torrent dels Maduixers project brings wider benefits to the community because it contributes to Barcelona’s strategic goal of becoming a ‘compact city’ - a step that would make it economically and environmentally more sustainable. The project offers practical steps forward by introducing a variety energy efficiency measures and through a reduction in the consumption of resources such as water.Building a greener futureEnergy is being saved thanks to the building’s geothermal system, which is used to provide air conditioning and hot water. In addition, the installation of skylights has cut down on the use of electric lighting. The deployment of 42 energy-efficient vehicles (including 24 electric vehicles) reduces the use of fossil fuels. Meanwhile, a groundwater collection system helps make savings on the use of fresh water.Due to the building’s location, waste collection teams are now taking less time to arrive at their destinations, which in turn is helping to improve efficiency while delivering a better service to local residents. Service quality has also been improved through restructuring street cleaning operations across the district.Total investment and EU fundingTotal investment for the project “Torrent dels Maduixers” is EUR 4 199 529, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund is contributing EUR 3 359 623 from the Operational Programme “Catalonia” for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.