Waste as business opportunity: Andalusia to adopt a Circular Economy Law

A new chapter in the local government’s ‘green revolution’

The official website of the Andalusia Region (Spain) informed the public that a Circular Economy Law is in the works and is currently under debate at the regional parliament. Its adoption would aim to implement a dual benefit for the people, both through encouraging entrepreneurship and employment and stronger environmental protection.

The bill under consideration was defended this way by the Regional Minister of the Interior and Public Administration, Elías Bendodo, during his visit to a Plastic Energy recycling plant in Alcalá de Guadairá. He used Plastic Energy as a concrete example of the kind of company that would best benefit from the new law since its activities lead the way in showing how to leave behind throwaway culture.

Andalusia is especially threatened by global warming

Plastic Energy counts with two recycling plants in Andalusia - one in Alcalá de Guadairá and another in El Ejido – whose operations have prevented more than 20 million kilos of plastic from ending up in the landfill or in the ocean since they began operating.

The company’s plants transform used end-of-life plastic waste into TACOil, a product for the manufacture of new clean and recycled plastics. They do so through a unique and patented process called Thermal Anaerobic Conversion (TAC).

As explained by Mr Bendodo, when this regulation is approved, Andalusia will move forward to become a zero-waste autonomous community, underlining that waste is also a business opportunity.

The Minister also stressed the Andalusian Government's commitment to companies based in the region because, together with entrepreneurs and the self-employed, "they are the best we have, and synonymous with the future and growth".

To explain the support provided by the Andalusian Government to companies, he referred to the reduction of bureaucratic obstacles, the three tax cuts or the promotion of public-private collaboration. 

Decisions that, as he has indicated, have given results because "never in Andalusia, in recent decades, has there been so much foreign investment, and this happens because we are facilitating the arrival of new investors."

In numbers, he recalled that for the first 3 quarters of 2021 these investments amounted to 664.5 million euros.