Waste treatment options include biomethanization or anaerobic digestion. Basically, methane biogas is obtained from the organic waste by fermentation of biodegradable matter in the absence of oxygen. There is already a way to obtain biogas in landfills, but in biomethanization plants a more sophisticated system is used, separating the materials into moving tapes, passing the filtrates to the waste, etc. From a biomethanization plant, the material that is returned to the recycling circuit (metals, paper, etc.), biogas and compost could be obtained.

In the Basque Country there are two such plants: one in Vitoria-Gasteiz and the other in Tudela. In El Culebrete de Tudela, the ruins of La Ribera, Barranco, Zangotza, Maiaraga and Izarbeibarra are collected. It opened in 2007 and last year it reached 59,000 tons for biomethanation. They extract 130,000 megabytes of electricity a year by burning local biogas and 6,000 tons of compost. The Consorcio de Residuos de Navarra planned to expand the plant in El Culebret due to its proximity to its border –60,000 tons of waste– but the crisis has resulted in less waste and the cancellation of the plan last September. The Biocompost plant, located in the Jundiz polygon in Vitoria-Gasteiz, opened in 2006 and receives 50,000 tons of waste per year, half of which is “used” and the other half goes to the Gardelegi landfill.

Canopia, the project of Bil ta Garbi

In addition to the biomethanization plants that currently exist, there are plans to open others. In the north of Bayonne, the Bil Ta Garbi Trade Union or People’s Association wants to open such a centre for the treatment of the rubbish of the 180,000 inhabitants of


the conglomerate that makes up Bayonne-Angular-Biarritz and those of the surrounding villages. The center has been renamed Canopia and is expected to be operational by 2013, when the agreement to take the trash to Gironde is exhausted.

On the other hand, the revision of the Gipuzkoa Waste Plan, in addition to the incinerator, talks about the “composting and/or biomethanisation” plant for Donostialdea and Bidasoaldea. In fact, this plant should already be in operation, and the review says that in addition to composting the harvested organic, it will “perhaps” biomethanize. In this sense, the Aralar Party has proposed to abandon the incinerator and start biomethanization or gasification. According to this aspect, by classifying the waste and applying this thermo-mechanical treatment, 80% of the volume of waste could be reduced. Aralar estimates that 187 million euros should be invested in the construction of this type of plant in Gipuzkoa, generating 33 MW and 199 new jobs.

But not all of them fit into this system. According to the CADE collective, which brings together different associations for the defense of the environment of the north, the most reasonable would be to separate the waste at its origin, especially in relation to the organic ones, and says that there are “better solutions” to do so, citing the example of Usurbil (internal bulletin Rainbow of July 2010). Other environmental associations and groups have also criticized biomethanization, both because it closes the way to more sustainable and less expensive systems such as waste reduction, composting, reuse, etc., and also because it emits carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide. Instead, it prevents the emission of methane.