The construction of the Centre represents an investment of 80.7 milion Euros financed by the Generalitat de Catalunya

The Centre will be one of he main creators of alternative energy in Catalunya

The Catalan government minister for Environment and Housing, Francesc Baltasar, opened today the Centre Integral de Valorització de Residus del Maresme, located in the town of Mataró. The opening event has been attended by the chairman of the Consorci per al Tractament de Residus Sôlids Urbans del Maresme, and mayor of Mataró, Joan Antoni Baron, the Catalan government delegate for Barcelona, Carme San Miguel, and the director of the Agència de Residus de Catalunya, Genoveva Català. Mayors of Maresme and Vallès Oriental districts towns, among other representatives, have also attended the event.

The Centre Integral de Valorització de Residus del Maresme consists of a MBT plant, which deals with the mixed waste that still contain recoverable materials. Treatment of the mixed waste fraction is characteristic of the Catalan model of urban waste management, and its aim is to recover as much usable material as possible before sending waste to the landfill or the Waste-to-Energy plant. This way, some materials go back to the production cycle, and this means savings in resources and energy. The waste arriving at the Centre Integral de Valorització will first go through a mechanic treatment to separate and classify the recoverable materials (paper, metal, plastic, glass, etc.). The organic waste that may be contained in the initial mix will go through a biological treatment to use the biogas generated to produce electric energy. This process is estimated to reduce the waste destined to energy recovery in the next door facility by 50%, which ensures only the waste from which no materials can be recovered will be destined to energy recovery.

The Centre also includes a line of bulky waste (sofas, furniture, etc.) treatment, and several stations of transfer for the fractions collected separately (food waste, glass, packaging, and paper and cardboard). The food waste arriving at the transfer station will be sent to the composting and biomethanization plant in Vallès Oriental, where it will be treated to obtain compost and electric power, since the Maresme and the Vallès Oriental districts share waste facilities to ensure a sustainable and efficient management. The remaining fractions collected separately go to the relevant waste recuperators to go through a recycling process. 

The Centre also has an important role in the fight against climate change, since it will be one of the main alternative energy producers in Catalunya. The facility will produce energy from several resources: from the photovoltaic solar pannels on the roof; biogas from the waste biological treatment; and from the energy recovery process carried out int the Waste-to-Energy plant.

The Centre Integral de Valorització de Residus del Maresme is part of the network of facilities planned on the government Pla territorial sectorial d’infraestructures de gestió de residus municipals (Land sectorial plan of infrastructures for the management of municipal waste), which determines the treatment plants necessary to treat the waste generated in the Maresme and the Vallès Oriental districts. The construction of the Centre entails an investment of 80.7 milion Euros, financed by the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) by means of a contract-programme with the Agència de Residus de Catalunya (Catalan Waste Agency), which is the promoter, together with the Consorci per al Tractament de Residus Sòlids Urbans del Maresme. The facility will start operation tests in September, and once it opens, it will create 35 jobs, to be added to the current staff of the concessionary company. Also, it is estimated that the existence of the Centre will create 85 more indirect jobs.

The service the facility offers is framed within the Catalan urban waste management model, based in prevention and recycling. The facilities respond to the process started in the Catalan homes with the correct separation of waste (food waste, glass, paper, packaging, etc.) to reuse the maximum amount of materials sending them to the production cycle. This process, thus, involves everyone from the citizens to the Administration, which promotes treatment facilities framed within the territorial sector infrastructures plan.

The correct separation of waste is a habit more and more deeply rooted among the citizens. In Catalunya, in 2009, 37.6% of the waste was collected separately, a percentage high above the mean percentage for the rest of Spain (17%) and the OECD countries (30%). On the same line, this type of facilities are a sample of the task being carried out by the Catalan government through the Departament de Medi Ambient i Habitatge (Environment and Housing Department) and the Agència de Residus de Catalunya (Catalan Waste Agency), with the cooperation of the city councils and other local organizations, with the aim to build a sustainable, modern and innovative waste management model.

 
News puclished on 21 July 2010