Utter rubbish

Malaga residents are frustrated with recycling arrangements in their community

RESIDENTS of Cerrado de Calderón are becoming increasingly frustrated with the current recycling system in Málaga.

For Elena Coricelli, President of her building in Cerrado de Calderón, music professor and single mother, issues with the recycling scheme have meant she has stopped recycling rubbish in her home. One of the difficulties for many residents in the area is the distance of the recycling bins from their homes. Despite having the room for such a system, recycling services are not at a comfortable walking distance from Ms Coricelli’s home and transport of such items requires the use of a car. This arrangement is both dirty and unhygienic, especially a problem for the parents of young children.

The prime problem with the current scheme, and the issue which most frustrates Ms Coricelli, is the unreasonably small size of the gaps in the recycling bins, resulting in a time consuming process of depositing each individual item one at a time into often unclean and foul smelling bins. With a small child and a busy schedule, Ms Coricelli has been forced to abandon a recycling system in her home.

“I wouldn’t mind collecting recycling at home”, said Ms Coricelli, “if it was possible to take a large bag of recyclable items to the containers, even with the distance, but the holes of the containers are so small I am having to take time to deposit one dirty item at a time. Eventually I simply throw the whole bag away in the regular rubbish container where it is possible to deposit an entire bag.”

Ms Coricelli has contacted the Ayuntamiento but to no avail. Having been told six months ago that a recycling container would be situated close to her home as soon as one was available, Ms Coricelli is still waiting for a result, despite further calls to the Ayuntamiento.

Ms Coricelli continued to explain that if there was a recycling container nearer to the house, it would be possible to dispose of a few items a day. Alternatively, Ms Coricelli says she is happy to collect a large amount of item to recycle if a system was implemented which could mean residents could dispose of their recycling collectively. Until then, residents remain unhappy with the current system which has proved to be both unpleasant and highly inconvenient.