Door-to-door waste collection in Usurbil entered into force in 2009 to collect each day of the week the different types of waste (organic, light packaging, paper/cardboard and others). This novel system had several objectives: to promote composting, to reduce the amount of garbage and to increase the recycling rate above 80%. The new municipal regulations opened the way to the Urbil shopping centre to selectively manage waste, but according to Leyre Lobato, deputy director of Urbil, these had been differentiating waste generated by shops and customers for one year.

Eleven years ago, the centre received worker Marilia Pires to check that waste was properly disposed of. With the help of a group, Pires started to pedagogy with the premises and customers of the mall to explain why and how to carry out a selective waste management.

Pires has acknowledged that the beginning was controversial and difficult, as people did not understand why they had to separate the trash from the trash: “When we started with the waste issue, there was less awareness, and many told us it wasn’t going to separate the trash. So we had to do their job, and given that there are over sixty stores, that's a great job. After eleven years people have understood why we have to separate the garbage and now they make the work much easier for us.” From Urbil we can see in situ the smoke from the fireplaces of the incinerator of Zubieta, which was recently opened by the Gipuzkoan authorities.

How do they work?

You might think it's a big task to separate the amount of waste generated by a large mall like Urbil, and to a large extent it is. At present, Urbil checks and classifies waste from 65 businesses, except those of Eroski.

In addition to the waste groups mentioned above, they work with more companies to separate: glass, damaged lamps, batteries, clothing, used oil... For this purpose they have specific recycling points.

On the other hand, customers also review the waste they deposit in the containers located in the mall. This is what gives Pires the most, although he says that today the shops recycle “quite well” in general, except for exceptions. On specific days, however, the work is multiplied, as the influx of people is very variable. On November 1, for example, he had more work than was thought; despite being a holiday, the hotel rooms and cinemas were open, and due to bad weather conditions, Lobato told us that there were more customers than ever: “I have rarely seen so many people,” he said. According to Pires, these days locals like McDonald’s are often full of necks and the workers recycle quite badly with the turmoil they have, they often have to give back the garbage bags for them to separate well.

“We can’t do anything”

Despite the good management of waste and the high recycling rate, one area has a problem in itself: the desire to sell more and more leads to more waste. Companies have a number of criteria before the establishment of the site, for example, that waste management complies with municipal regulations, which must be accepted in writing in the contract. However, there are no criteria for stopping the mass production of waste, something that Lobato has acknowledged would be practically impossible.

McDonald’s is the world’s leading symbol of waste overproduction. The only thing that can be reused are trays, everything else is disposable: glasses, cartons, straws, containers... In other restaurants, dishes, cups and cutlery are cleaned and reused. But McDonald's doesn't.

The US company, which has over 38.000 premises in the world, can easily imagine the thousands of tons of waste it generates every day instead of reusing. According to Lobato, before a multinational company like this, Urbil has difficulty doing anything, which often leads to "an absolute incapacity".

Limitations on traceability of shops

Christmas is just around the corner, and these days consumption and, therefore, the amount of waste increases considerably. During these days, Pires and the other cleaning partners have more work in collecting and sorting the garbage that could be avoided. But those in charge of the mall have explained that they have serious limitations in imposing rules on shops so that they do not produce that excess waste.

It is the public institutions that in these cases have the most competence and strength to put companies on the track, but, as Urbil has seen, there is not much progress in this regard. While parties talk of commitment to the environment, a hundred companies are responsible for 70% of the world’s pollution emissions. This excess of waste and pollution continues to be a sign of the multinationals' impunity for governments.