Selective collection of glass containers in the Valencian Community (Spain)

Abstract

Spanish legislation has recently adopted the norms defined by a directive of the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, 20 December 1994, concerning containers and container residues. The purpose of the directive is to harmonize national measures for the processing of these products in member states. Thus, contributing to prevent or reduce their impact upon the environment both in the different member states and in third countries. To this effect, the directive requires the compliance within a given period of a series of recycling and processing objectives applicable to all the packaging and container materials on the market, including glass products. The aims of the present study included an evaluation of the selective collection of glass waste products in the Valencian Community (Spain), in order to determine the degree of compliance with the above mentioned recycling objectives. The results obtained show that 24.54% of all municipalities within the triple-province of the Valencian Community fail to comply with these measures, thereby generating changes in the selective collection of such materials.