The city of Figueres (Gerona) has once again awarded the contract for municipal waste collection and transport to FCC Medio Ambiente, company which has been operating in the city for more than 40 years. The order book value is worth €35.2 million for the next eight years and will serve a total of 50,000 residents.

The service, which manages around 18,500 tonnes of waste per year, will involve 40 professionals and seeks to adapt to the current needs of the municipality in order to improve the efficiency and sustainability of the waste management system. Sustainability is particularly important, with a completely renewed fleet of more than twenty vehicles, two electric inspection vehicles and an electric bicycle for the environmental educator. 

The contract will bring along a complete change in technology, focusing on the unification of the single-operator collection system with surface-level bilateral loading containers. The new model involves replacing all current surface and underground containers with new bilateral loading containers. In addition, there will be an improvement in selective collection and the promotion of waste separation. All locations will include the five collection fractions (residual, organic, paper, packaging and glass) to maximise separation at source. 

In terms of initiatives, specific collection for commercial and industrial activities will be implemented and a complete renovation of the container network will be carried out, with 1,118 surface containers and 1,500 bins with a RFID identification system, on-board weighing systems and fill sensors. The city will have an intensive interior cleaning service for containers every month and a half, which will allow entire areas of dirty containers to be replaced with clean ones, and an exterior cleaning service for containers and their surroundings every two weeks. Another change will be the implementation of a collection service for used vegetable oils, for which 60 containers will be made available in the city. 

For the commercial sector, a door-to-door collection system using dual-compartment trucks will be implemented. This system will cover the selective collection of residual and organic waste in hospitality, as well as paper and packaging waste in large commercial establishments. In addition, the selective collection of waste generated by activities located in industrial estates will be included. The aim of this service is to offer an efficient solution tailored to the specific needs of each sector, with daily collections or a frequency adjusted according to demand. 

Technological innovation is also a key element of the renewal, with the centralisation of comprehensive service management on the digital platform VISION, developed exclusively by FCC Medio Ambiente, which enables real-time interaction with incidents, requests from residents and the municipal team. In addition, GPS trackers will be installed in vehicles for greater safety and control in the provision of the service.

Social sustainability is another fundamental element of the new contract, which provides for the launch of various communication and awareness campaigns aimed at promoting citizen participation, transparency and continuous improvement of the service, with the incorporation of a new environmental educator who will help make communication more efficient, sustainable and inclusive.

The vehicle and machinery park is located in the same municipality, minimising travel time, and its design has paid special attention to environmental aspects. It has solar panels for energy self-consumption, a domestic hot water (DHW) system, aerothermal heating, electric vehicle chargers, LED lighting, motion sensors and timed lighting. All this, together with the implementation of a comprehensive service quality self-monitoring system, will enable continuous improvement in quality indicators and constant adaptation to the needs of the municipality.