What's all this rubbish?

I was watching the TV news and guffawing slightly as egg-throwing ratepayers tried to pelt the mayor of Morrazo in Galicia. She was escorted to her car by police officers crouching behind transparent shields. The unpleasantness was caused by an increase in the rubbish collection rates. How much the price was upped depends on which source you believe but it was probably about 70%. All over Spain, rubbish collection charges have been going up. If you live in Pinoso, you will remember that the town doubled its rubbish charge to 120€ from 60€ in 2024. I vaguely recall that Orihuela residents took to the streets a little while ago when their water and rubbish charges went up a lot and I think there are other local examples too. Pinoso residents did not go a burnin' and lootin' in 2024.

These increases are driven by European and Spanish legislation that requires town halls to ensure that individuals and businesses cover the real cost of processing the rubbish they produce. Subsidies from other parts of the municipal budget are no longer permitted—nothing from quarry profits, for instance. The idea behind the new charges is that households and businesses that produce more rubbish, do not recycle, and do not compost see the direct consequences of their actions and so amend their ways.

The problem is that finding a system that does that, especially in rural areas with communal bins, is not so easy. If there are communal bins, how do you stop the unscrupulous from unloading household and even business rubbish into the bins? You only need to look around at the rural bins overflowing with builders’ rubble and with old sofas parked alongside to realise that people will not do as they are supposed to if they can find a cheaper way.

I remember that Sax was introducing compounds that only registered users could access, and these enclosed bin compounds accessible only via electronic access cards are pretty common. Some town halls have also introduced electronically tagged bin bags so that rubbish producers can be monitored and charged accordingly, but again I am pretty sure that for every foolproof town hall plan there is someone dreaming up sophisticated, or not so sophisticated, countermeasures.