Redaccion
Bilbao increased glass packaging selective collection by 1.9% in 2024, with each citizen depositing 26.5 kilograms of this type of waste. The city boasts the «most productive» container in the country located in the Plaza del Ensanche, collecting 75 tons.
These figures were revealed on Tuesday during the presentation of the glass selective collection balance by Bilbao’s Councilor of Public Works and Services, Kepa Odriozola, and Ecovidrio’s manager in Euskadi, Óscar Acedo.
Despite a 3% decrease in consumption, Bilbao saw a 1.9% increase in glass packaging selective collection, reaching 9,232 tons for the first time.
Each citizen in Bilbao deposited 26.5 kilograms of glass packaging, equivalent to about 91 containers per person, in the approximately 1,290 green containers installed. This places the city among the top three «most recycling» capitals in the country, approaching the levels of the most advanced European countries in recycling practices.
Additionally, the city has the most productive glass container in the country, located in the Plaza del Ensanche, which collected 75 tons of glass packaging waste last year.
The 2024 data «confirms the positive trend» of the city in glass packaging selective collection, with a 20.5% growth over the past five years.
Odriozola expressed satisfaction with the city’s «positive» data on glass packaging selective collection, a record that «improves year by year, thanks to the municipality’s involvement and the effort and responsibility of Bilbao’s citizens in recycling and source separation.»
These efforts, he emphasized, «reflect the city’s commitment to advancing towards a more sustainable and circular model, where waste is managed as valuable resources for the environment and society.»
On his part, Óscar Acedo pointed out that the results in Bilbao are «clear evidence that when citizens, the hospitality sector, and the public administration join efforts, significant progress can be made in glass recycling.»
Thanking the Bilbao City Council and all Bilbao citizens for «their involvement and commitment,» he warned that «the challenge now is to maintain this growth trajectory, implementing plans and ensuring compliance with municipal regulations that mandate recycling and source separation, as established by law.»
«Once again, Euskadi has shown the strength of the recycling model through the green container,» stated the Ecovidrio representative.
The organization explained that glass is a material «100% recyclable infinitely,» with a recycling quality that makes the separate collection system of glass packaging the most effective, efficient, and environmentally sustainable model.
Based on the data provided, glass recycling in Bilbao in 2024 helped avoid the emission of 5,354 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, equivalent to removing 2,500 cars from circulation for a year. It also saved 6,593 MWh of energy and the extraction of over 11,070 tons of raw materials, equivalent to more than nine times the weight of Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue.
EUSKADI DATA
In Euskadi, glass packaging selective collection reached 62,113 tons. Each Basque citizen deposited 27.8 kg of glass packaging, equivalent to 95 glass containers per person in the 11,314 green containers installed in the autonomous community, figures «much higher» than the national average (19.1 kg/per capita and 65 containers per person).
Based on these numbers, Basque citizens deposited 582,782 glass containers per day in the green containers, and over 404 containers per minute.
By territories, Gipuzkoa leads in citizen contribution to glass packaging selective collection in Euskadi with 34.2 kg per capita, followed by Bizkaia (24.8 kg per capita) and Álava (24.6 kg per capita).
In addition to all the glass deposited in the green containers, Ecovidrio recovered 380 tons of glass packaging waste that was not correctly separated at the source, which could be recovered at the Biocompost Urban Waste Plant in Vitoria-Gasteiz, reintegrating them into the production cycle.
Ecovidrio highlighted that for another year, the Basque hospitality sector continued to be «a strategic pillar of action» and, through the EcoVares plan, the organization impacted nearly 2,000 establishments in Euskadi and launched 19 campaigns in collaboration with municipalities to «ensure excellent compliance with municipal regulations that mandate waste separation at the source for large generators.»
Euskadi, where Ecovidrio directly manages all collections, has a treatment plant and a «reference» glassworks that allow all glass deposited in the containers to be fully recycled in the community.
«This powerful and innovative industrial fabric, combined with the firm commitment of the administration and the citizens to recycling, has made the region one of the most circular in the country,» praised Ecovidrio.
