Recycling facilities on the Costa
Who does what?
The difference between the Punto Limpio and Urbaser/Ecovidrio, etc
(extracted from the Linea Verde Estepona website)
Punto Limpio, also called Ecoparks or Ecopuntos or Green Points, are municipal facilities where waste of domestic origin is collected that is generated occasionally but cannot be deposited in the usual containers.
This includes: Vegetable oil, car oil, batteries, fluorescents and light bulbs, paintings, X-rays, printer and toner cartridges, thermometers, electrical waste, home appliances, CD's, DVD's, VHS tapes, used clothes and footwear, furniture and bulky woods.
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Scroll down for more detail.
Urbaser (www.urbaser.com) is the company which runs the waste treatment and recycling centre near Estepona on behalf of the Mancomunidad of eleven municipalities along the Costa del Sol West coast from Fuengirola to Manilva, including Benahavis, Benalmadena, Cesares, Estepona, Fuengirola, Istan, Manilva, Marbella, Mijas, Ojen and Torremolinos). The facility is located on the Estepona-Casares road. Urbaser takes care of General waste (Grey bins) and Plastic (Yellow bins).
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Ecovidrio is the company which deals with the Glassware (Green bins). Paper (Blue bins) is handled by various companies, depending on the contract for your area, including for example Irmasol.
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For a breakdown of what goes into which bins, scroll down this page.
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What goes Where?
Recycling rules on the Costa (work in progress)
Yellow Bins = Containers = Plastic +++
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'Envases : recipientes de plastico - bolsas - boteilles - latas - bricks - bandejas de porexpan'
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Important! Rinse all items before placing in bins
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FOR:
METAL CONTAINERS: cans of beer or soft drinks, cans of preserves and jams, aluminum trays and foil, metal caps/lids of bottles and jars
BRICK TYPE CONTAINERS: Juice, milk, wines, sauces
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PLASTIC AND ALUMINIUM PACKAGING: Plastic bags, aluminium foil, vacuum pouches of cold cuts, transparent food wrap plastic, plastic trays, plastic egg cups, disposable plastic cups and plates, chip/crisp bags, sweet wrappings
BOTTLES AND PLASTIC CONTAINERS: bottles of water and milk, containers of cleaning products (gels, cologne, toothpastes), all tubs including butter, yogurt cups, bags of candy snacks, trays, pots,
polystyrene
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NOT FOR!
PAINT CONTAINERS (Cans/tins)
MATERIAL
GLASSES
COMPUTER PARTS
VIDEO TAPES or CDs
CLOTHING
CHEMICAL PRODUCTS
TOYS
PENS, COMBS
BUCKETS, including children's beach buckets
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Green Bins = Glass
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'Vidrio : botellas - tarros - frascos de vidrio'
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GLASS BOTTLES (all colours)
GLASS JARS (all colours)
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All without their lids! Metal lids/caps go into the yellow bins)
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NOT FOR!
WINDOWS, Window panes
WINDSCREENS
MIRRORS
DISHES
GLASSES
LIGHT BULBS including fluorescent tubes
CERAMICS
TILES
PORCELAIN
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NOTE! Mirrors and window panes are not deposited in this container, they all must be taken to the Clean Point/Punto Limpio.
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All items should be rinsed out before being put in the bins - applies to plastic too
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TIP: before depositing the bottles, separate the lids and deposit them in the yellow container.
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Blue Bins = Paper
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'Papel y carton ; periodicos - revistas - cajas de carton (sin grasa ni elementos metallicos)
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PRINTED PAPER: newspapers, magazines, sheets of printed paper, flyers, comics, notebooks, brochures, envelopes
PAPER BAGS
CARDBOARD AND BOXES (clean), including egg boxes, cereal boxes
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NOT FOR!
PAPER, BOXES AND CARDBOARD that is
-soiled in any way, including by oil and paint
-waxed paper
-Plasticed, eg. some wrapping/gift paper with plastic film
MILK OR JUICE BRICKS (go into yellow bins)
USED PAPER SERVIETTES, PAPER TOWEL, KITCHEN ROLL, TISSUES
NAPPIES
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Note re Pizza Boxes: do not recycle with paper if the box has oil/grease marks. Split the top from the bottom, and place the top in the paper bin, and the bootm with its oil stains in the general waste bin.
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Grey = General rubbish (not recyclable)
(old versions were green)
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'Residuos : basura - residuos no reciclables'
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LEFTOVERS, VEGETABLE AND FRUIT, PEELS and other organic waste
PAPER AND CARDBOARD STAINED with OIL, GREASE, PAINT, including the bases of pizza boxes
CERAMIC and PORCELAIN
CORKS (natural only; plastic corks = yellow bins)
DIAPERS/NAPPIES
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NOT FOR!
GLASS
CARDBOARD BOXES
PLASTIC BOTTLES
CD's
PAPER which is soiled. Cardboard and paper, including printed paper, which is unsoiled by oil or paint goes into the blue bins. Soiled paper goes into these grey bins.
Note that eveything placed in the grey bins is sorted at the Urbaser plant, with the aim of recovering as much as possible for recycling. By placing rubbish in the correct recycling bins, you will be facilitating their work of managing resources in the best possible way. As the municipality pays Urbaser for processing the waste from the grey bins, but not the yellow (and green and blue), you will also be reducing your basura tax.
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Puntos Limpios - Clean Points
These are specialist or municipal facilities which collect occasional household waste which cannot be deposited in the usual containers.
In some places in Marbella, including San Pedro and Nueva Andalucia, there is a also a mobile service called 'Punto Limpio Movil' on scheduled days. Note also collection points in certain shops, eg. for batteries in some photo shops and supermarkets. See photo of the Carrefour recycling bins below. Nespresso has a collection point for their used capsules at their stores.
At these centres, the waste is separated and collected by people authorised by the municipal officials to treat them appropriately, including:
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Vegetable oil, car oil
Glass excluding bottles and jars, eg. Window panes, broken drinking glasses, windscreens, mirrors
Light bulbs including fluorescent bulbs
Batteries
Paintings
Monitors and TVs, computer devices
X-rays
Printer and toner cartridges
Thermometers
Electrical waste
Hazardous waste
Home appliances
CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes
Clothes and used footwear
Furniture and bulky wood
Metal and scrap
Remains of solvents and paint
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To find out where these facilities are, their opening hours and what they will accept, check your local municipality website, or google 'punto limpio' and the name of your area. You may find alternative websites eg. Marbella = marbellaazul.com/listing/rubbish-disposal/ and Estepona = www.lineaverdeestepona.com.
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Carrefour Estepona recycling bins: Phones, Light bulbs, Flourescents, and Batteries.
Near the Customer Service station.
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Random facts about recycling on the Costa
What happens to the recycled material?
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Plastic : the company responsible for plastic recycling throughout Spain is Ecoembes. www.ecoembes.com.
The material recovered from recycling is used to make various products including clothing such as fleeces (80 plastic bottles will make one fleece), bicycle rims (40 tin cans), shoe boxes (6 tetra packs), kitchen pots, amongst many others. Refer to their excellent website for more info.
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Glass : the company which deals with recycling of glass is Ecovidrio. www.ecovidrio.com. The glass is reduced to its base materials which is then used to produce new bottles and jars.
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Paper : after treatment, recycled paper products and cardboard boxes are produced.
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Organic waste : some is used for make compost which is used as fertiliser, and the remainder is used as fuel for electric power which is used by the recycling facility for its own power needs.
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Important note! Save yourself some tax!
Plastic and glass which is placed in the grey (general rubbish) bins is largely recovered by Urbaser,
BUT ...
the municipalities pay Urbaser to treat the general rubbish, and recover the costs from us via the Basura fee/tax.
The amount is based on the weight of general rubbish collected and treated by Urbaser on their (our) behalf.
This does not apply to the yellow, blue and green bins.
So, put plastic and glass in the bins where they belong, and you'll be saving yourself (and us all) some tax!