Second best is not good enough for Sant Cugat

Sometimes, it is necessary to aid good practices with time and patience

We often report on the good practices implemented by municipalities in the various aspects that surround daily life. However, it is also good to remember that said practices might need time to take roots and it is also a good idea to keep reinforcing them in order to achieve a long-term change and create a new beneficiary habit.

Such is the case with the Catalonian municipality of Sant Cugat, whose administration introduced a system for collecting bulky waste back in February 2017. Today it is happy to report that it is ranked as the second-best municipality in the autonomous region (in the category of more than 60 000 inhabitants) in terms of selective waste collection rates.

Yet, this success has not gotten to the heads of the local administrators – in fact, the opposite has happened. The municipal government announced today that it will start a new campaign, called ‘VoluminoSOS’, which wants to remind residents about the proper ways of disposing of larger objects and the benefits of that.

Bulky waste are things, such as furniture, woodwork and metal that does not fit into containers

Authorities have decided to completely eliminate problems which arise from bulk objects that have been left out in the wrong spots or outside of permitted hours. The type of problems they have referred to are things like the obstruction of traffic and pedestrian mobility, unsightliness and general discomfort for the neighbours.

That is why Sant Cugat households will receive information cards outlining the collection service hours and conditions and those will be accompanied with a free fridge magnet in order to place them on a visible place. Additionally, there will be banners all over the town, information stickers on the containers and, naturally, an awareness wave will also take over the social media channels.

Residents of Sant Cugat and Valldoreix can leave bulky objects near the containers after 8 pm, on the day that is assigned to their neighbourhood. On any other day, they can take the objects themselves to the two assigned landfills – the Ambiteca and the Punt Verd de Can Calopa. The elderly or those with reduced mobility can also call the collection service and have the objects picked from their homes in case they cannot bring them to the containers.

On the other hand, the Municipality of Sant Cugat has also reminded that infractions will be penalized with fines ranging between 750 and 3000 euros.