Just six of Alicante’s 81 municipalities have food waste bins despite January 2020 deadline

SIX of Alicante’s 81 municipalities are understood to have food waste bins despite government measures mandating their presence across the Valencian Community by January 2020.

Alicante, Elche, Sant Joan, San Vicente, El Campello and Elda have complied with new rules established in the Plan Integral de Residuos (PIR) approved last April by the Valencian Generalitat.

Measures stated that ‘all municipalities and local entities responsible for waste collection services must have a separate collection for bio-waste’ by the deadline.

But eight months later the vast majority of municipalities are still scratching their heads at how to install the new brown container – also known as the ‘fifth’ bin – for organic waste.

The brown-coloured container will recycle the food waste that previously was sent to rot in landfills or burn in incinerators via grey-coloured ‘all waste’ bins.

Numerous town halls contacted by Diario Información complained the Valencian government was ‘not inclined’ to offer any assistance to regional waste collection firms.

One municipality on the Marina Baixa region said it was still ‘preparing documents to award the new contract and include all new modifications’ of the PIR.

Many town halls said they were planning to roll-out the new food waste containers some time in 2020.