The Quality of Municipal Information on Waste.

Transcription

1 The Quality of Municipal Information on Waste

2 Index Introduction [03] Objective [05] Methodology [06] What the municipal information [08] - General characteristics [08] - Basic content [11] Conclusions of the study [21] Recommendations [22] 2

3 Introduction (1) OCU Salud April 2013 Environmental Pollution Survey; OCU Compra Maestra November 2012 Environmental Behaviour Survey. (2) In recent surveys carried out in the UK, 32% of those who answered said that they would be willing to recycle more if they were better informed (Report of a survey of public awareness of recycling and recycled products. Survey commissioned by the Resource Association from YouGov. June 2012) Citizens play an essential role in waste management: so that waste can be correctly treated it needs to be placed in the corresponding container and in the correct way (separated, crushed, empty, etc.) Nevertheless, European citizens and, in particular, Spanish citizens feel that we are not sufficiently informed (1) about what happens to the waste once it has been handed over, what effect our collaboration has (how much waste has been managed, how much contamination has been prevented, etc.) and we are not satisfied with the means established for communicating if we have any questions about how to proceed (where to go to get rid of certain kinds of waste, advice on separating correctly, etc.). This compromises the evolution and progress of the system, it is not only a matter of image (2). We have all asked ourselves or at some time questioned the destination of the waste that we put into the containers or that we take to the Puntos Limpios (recycling centres). It is our obligation to separate waste at home and take it to the delivery point, but it is not always easy: we are short of space for so many containers, we live far from the Puntos Limpios (recycling centres) or they have opening times that are incompatible with our domestic routine and we find it tedious if we do not occasionally receive motivation, data about the results, about what happens to the waste once it has been deposited in the corresponding container. We may even stop doing it or not put so much effort into it, if every time we have a doubt or look for information we do not find it, are not attended or do not understand it. Local authorities are responsible for collecting domestic waste in town centres and, therefore, they are the main point of connection between the citizen and the system that is responsible for managing urban waste (recycling it, burning it, taking it to landfill, etc.). Therefore, it is important that they inform us about the means available to citizens for handing it in, provide data about what has been collected, where it has been processed and offer advice on how to improve the quality of the processing. However, they should also be willing to solve any doubts or complaints that may arise about certain waste and/or how the system functions, meaning that there should be an open channel to be able to contact them to deal with any doubts, complaints or suggestions. In short, communication should go in two directions, there should be a channel that is ready to give information and is willing to listen if we really want to make citizens feel that they are participating and responsible for waste management. 3

4 Introduction D INFORMATION: In the Environmental Behaviour Survey (Compra Maestra magazine November 2012, we discovered that the information to stimulate good environmental behaviour obtained the worst score (45/100) with regard to satisfaction with municipal environmental policies, as opposed to waste collection which obtain 73/100. Table 113 SPAIN Satisfaction with the environmental policies and infrastructure Parameters Accessibility to waste separation containers Accessibility to waste containers without separation Waste collection Collection of large electrical household appliances Accessibility and correct functioning of Puntos Limpios (recycling centres) Bicycle lanes (availability, maintenance, safety) Pedestrian areas (availability, maintenance, safety) Accessibility or availability of public transport Information offered to encourage ecological behaviour Level of satisfaction Low Medium High 21 % 20 % 11 % 32 % 35 % 46 % 34 % 27 % 57 % 38 % 38 % 32 % 36 % 37 % 33 % 43 % 39 % 32 % 41 % 42 % 57 % 32 % 28 % 21 % 23 % 34 % 11 % Index (max. 100) Easiness of complying with the collection system In the last survey on waste carried out by the OCU (May 2011), 20% of those who answered replied that it was complicated for them to separate waste with the current collection system, above all due to lack of information. Very easy Easy Easy/Difficult Difficult Very difficult Total 8.05 % % % % 5.26 % % 4

5 Objective The objective of this study is to assess the quality of information of the authorities close to the citizens (mainly town councils) in matters of waste, to verify how easy it is to contact them and solve doubts, at the same time as analysing the quality of the information made available to the public, to be able to conclude whether it is sufficient to keep the citizens informed and motivated. 5

6 Methodology How we did the study We chose the Internet as the information support for performing the analysis, because it has become a basic tool for information in recent years. In fact, in 2012, when we asked our members in a focus group study about where they looked for information when they had doubts about environmental matters, they said that they looked in Internet (they did not look for specific pages, they went straight to Google). Therefore, we focused our study on analysing the information on town council websites, although, if we did not find anything, we made a Google search in case there were specific pages, which is something similar to what any citizen would do. We did this by looking for the same kind of information, following a survey in which we included questions about aspects that contributed most and that we considered to be basic: i The study was carried out by OCU during the second semester of 2013 and its main results were published in the February 2014 issue of Compra Maestra magazine. Basic information Where and how I should deposit my waste... to make the task easier What the treatment process is... to avoid suspicion What the result of my collaboration is... to convince me about its usefulness How to get in contact to solve doubts or to make a complaint... to maintain the collaboration 6

7 Methodology We looked for information for two d ifferent kinds of waste: paper and batteries. Paper, because it is a non-hazardous waste, that is collected in a specific single material container, with a very high percentage of citizen participation, with a seasonal nature to its collection, with environmental benefits for recycling it, as opposed to burning it or putting it in a landfill site and with social benefits for recycling it nearby to create green employment. Batteries, because this enables us to see the quality of the information with regard to problematic waste that is slightly different because it occurs with less frequency in homes (greater possibility of dispersion or laziness in separating). They pose a greater pollution problem if they are not properly recycled (they contain toxic components, which is why they are qualified as hazardous). There are also specific containers but they are not always out in the street, we are less familiar with the process and sometimes suspicion has been aroused among the general public about whether they are really recycled or whether they end up in landfill sites. We chose 35 cities, 29 capitals of providence and 6 other important towns (Marbella, Torrejón de Ardoz, Terrassa, Gijón, Santiago de Compostela and Elche), distributed over all the Autonomous Communities; we also included the cities with the highest and the lowest scores with regard to satisfaction with the implementation and information about municipal environmental measures from the last survey on environmental behaviour (OCU, Compra Maestra, November 2012). Survey on environmental behaviour Once we had analysed the websites, we contacted those responsible for municipal waste in the towns selected so that they could tell us where to find the information we were looking for. In this way, we completed the data we had on the available information at the same time as assessing the ease of access to it. 7

8 What the municipal information on the website should be like General characteristics: Accessible Comprehensible Appealing Updated Accessible 8 Consumers must be able to find the information about waste easily when they go onto a website that covers so many areas or domains. A good web page will contain information about waste: - Grouped, thinking about how the citizen will use it. Good examples would be the websites of León or Granada, with concise yet comprehensive information presented in a way that everything can be seen quickly, quite the opposite to Valladolid which has the information dotted around in different sections (you have to go to Citizen Service, write the name of the waste in the search engine and you are given a list with the information in text with the collection points and the companies dedicated to it. In another section of Your City, you will find a List of Services where there are the regulations and the ways of submitting suggestions and complaints, etc.). Other examples of disperse information were found for Vitoria and Jaén. - That it should be found in logical places. It is acceptable that the bylaws on waste should be grouped in a general section of the town council page that is called regulations or something similar and not in the waste section, but nobody expects to have to go into Public Health, as is the case for Valencia, or to have to enter into the Printed forms and documents section of the Information and Citizen Service section to find information about how to recycle correctly or the recycling cycle (the case of Las Palmas). - Get there by means of simple browsing movements. Citizens expect to find the data regarding waste directly in an environmental area, such as in Albacete, which has it in the Themes> environment section, but not to have to go sorting through screens that do not have clear names, as was the case for Zaragoza where you need to go into The City> Services and Public Highway, and not into Environment. -- It makes the job much easier if there is a search engine on the homepage of the website where users can search for what they are looking for and that will take them directly to the content (the case of Segovia with "I am looking for information about ") - One very common error we discovered is that there was no link between the town council website and that of the waste management company when both of them provided information. They should complement each other and redirect users, as in the case of the website for Terrassa (with Ecoquip) where it would seem they share sections to prevent duplication. However, we did not see this, for example, in Zaragoza, Santander, Cáceres, Logroño, Palma de Mallorca or Badajoz. The case of Ciudad Real is even more serious because not only was there no link to the Consortium website, but there was hardly any information on the town council website and the Consortium only provided general or added information about all the municipalities that it manages. If you require particular information you need to have a password (register with the site).

9 Comprehensible Appealing What the municipal information - It should not contain texts with technical language that cannot be correctly understood by people without specific training. We did not detect special problems in this aspect. - However, we did come across a significant barrier: languages. So that every citizen can understand the content, the information should be, at the very least, in the official language of our country, Spanish, and it is advisable that it should also be in other languages that are commonly spoken in the area (Catalan, Euskera, Galician, etc.). It is also recommended that it should be translated into English, above all if it is a tourist area, and if it is an area with a predominantly immigrant population (colonies of Romanians, Moroccans, Russians, etc.), information should be provided in these languages. Not acceptable if it is only in Catalan: Terrassa and Tarragona A good example can be found in Vitoria, with Spanish, English, French and Euskera. We spend less and less time reading and even less so on the Internet. Information given on the website should be appealing if we want it to be read and taken in. Therefore we should: - Lay out the page so that it is appealing and does not create a sensation of rejection at first sight (Zaragoza would be the typical example of a "not very appealing" page, due to the layout not the content, because it then has a browse menu which guides the search very well). - Offer information in an organised way to make it easy to read all the contents and not to get lost (Vitoria would be a typical example to be improved upon, because there is no browse menu that tells you where you are at any time, and Granada would be a good example). Particular attention should be paid to the browse menus so that visitors know where they are at all times and can return to a different section they have already consulted and that might have caught their attention. Granada City Council Granada City Council 9

10 What the municipal information - Accompany the message with illustrations or infographics, avoiding the use of long texts (for example, it is better to inform about the waste process using infographics, such as those we found on the Las Palmas website than to do so in a plain text, such as found on the Barcelona website). Las Palmas City Council Paper and cardboard are taken to recycling plants, where they are converted into large bales of crushed paper. These bales are put into soak to obtain paper paste, which is drained to filter out any ferric material. The resulting paste is dried, pressed and rolled onto reels, which are distributed to the paper factories, where they are used to make new boxes, wrapping paper, construction sacks, stationery and even lavatory paper. Barcelona City Council - Show the data in graphs rather than in complicated tables but, above all, avoid doing so in plain text, as we found on the website of Palma de Mallorca: Collecting Paper and Cardboard. During 2003, 9,710 tonnes were collected; 432 one thousand-litre containers were installed and 916 3m 3 containers, making a total of 1,348 containers. In 2004, 10,694 tonnes were collected and 448 one thousand-litre containers were installed and 930 3m 3 ones. In 2005, 11,682 tonnes were collected, 269 one thousand-litre containers, 249 side-loading containers of litres and 932 3m 3 containers were installed, making a total of 1,450 units. Palma de Mallorca City Council - Include the information directly on the website or in simple documents that are easy to download. Avoid sending users to long corporate reports (for example the Palma de Mallorca company, EMAYA, gives more up-to-date information in the 2011 Report, however you need to get through 52 pages), having to download a calendar to find out how to recycle (as in the case of Segovia) or watching videos lasting more than five minutes. Barcelona is the typical example of a page that, at first sight, seems vague and imprecise, but which has a lot of information in appendices or files that need to be downloaded. - Yes to the use of multimedia tools such as calculators or videos, but they must be simple and/or short. For example, short videos, such as those of A Coruña, are more recommendable than those of Murcia, where they dedicate five minutes to explaining the R&D of the waste obtained from light packing and remaining waste without spending a second on explaining how other waste, such as paper or batteries, is processed. The Las Palmas Observatory data calculator provides a lot of information, but you need to select material, year, type of collection, etc. It is good for technical consultations, but is not useful for the general public to get an idea of how waste collection works in their municipality. Only specific data is obtained and the evolution cannot be seen, it is not given for all waste and can be complex to interpret. - Avoid having links that do not function or empty sections (company data in Badajoz, in December 2013, the FCC website did not work). Las Palmas City Council 10

11 What the municipal information 11 Updated It is important that the information should be updated; that we should not be talking about, for example, a "renewal of containers in 2010", such as we found in the Jaén website in December 2013, or about "planned" information for 2004 as in the case of Cáceres or that the links that supposedly lead to further information do not work (as in the case of Albacete with the "Albacete recycles" page or in Santander in the "Get to know more about the selective battery collection service" section). It is not a good idea for one part to have more updated information than another. For example, Barcelona has more recent figures on collection in the City Figures section than in the specific waste section. Other general characteristics about what the information on the website should be like: complete, rigorous and relevant with regard to content (we will analyse this in greater detail in the following section). What the municipal information Basic content: How the waste is collected Description of the treatment process Data on the results of waste management Regulations How to contact the Town Council Interesting links How the waste is collected - Users must find information about the location and the means available for collecting waste, in other words, the nearest place where they can take it and identify the type of container or delivery point where it should be left. Usually, information is given about containers, the number of them, a photo is included or it says that blue is for paper, for example, without listing their location (example, A Coruña). Although this is more information than was given in 24 other towns, which did not say anything about the location or containers (69% of the websites, such as Madrid, Gijón, Seville, Marbella, Ourense, Jaén, Salamanca, etc.). It would be useful to have a map or list with the collection points for all kinds of waste. In Valencia, Albacete, Pamplona and Malaga the location is given for batteries, but not for paper (perhaps it is understood that as they are nearby on the pavement, their location need not be given). In León, the information is concise and comprehensive, despite being in a text or plan format, which is not as appealing, but is still useful. However, the ideal thing for a support such as Internet is to have a tool in which you enter your location and the type of waste you want to dispose of and that you should come up with a list of the nearest points on a Google map. This is the case in Palma de Mallorca which, in its "Where should I throw it away?" section even shows you how to do so and common mistakes. Palma de Mallorca City Council

12 What the municipal information The Murcia company also has a "What goes where?" tool, but it is only for knowing which container each type of waste should go in, not their location and it is rather confusing to interpret because it uses colours to find out what container to use when you scroll your mouse over a kind of waste and identifies waste with the same colour, which could be confusing (glass and medications). - Know how to deliver the waste: for paper, it is important that it should be folded (so that the container can be filled up as much as possible and you are not transporting air), that it should be clean (that it should not have remains of food, beverage cartons, laminated paper or nappies) and that it should be placed inside (so as not to dirty the surrounding area, ensure that it is collected and easy to take away). It is also a good idea to remember that if you take the material in plastic bags, the bags should be separated into the plastic packaging, cans and cartons container (yellow), the bag should only go in with the paper if it is a paper bag. For batteries, you should only throw the battery away, not other waste such as plastic or mobile phone batteries or light bulbs. If there is a different place for button batteries, this should be clearly stated. We would particularly mention the appealing way A Coruña explains it (with a short video) (3). A Coruña City Council Also San Sebastián (although it is not easy to find and is only for paper) and Vitoria (not directly on the website, but in PDF format). Vitoria City Council San Sebastián City Council 12 (3)

13 What the municipal information 13 - Calendar/timetable for collections. It is particularly worthwhile when the waste is left in containers on the public roads (plastic packaging, cans and cartons, paper, organic matter, etc.), to try to take the waste out near the collection time and not to leave it unnecessarily in the street (possible unpleasant smells, leaching, theft, etc.). We would highlight how León informs users, as it is concise and visible with the rest of the basic information (and it does so, even if it is to say that there are no restrictions). Albacete and Granada also got good scores. - Special collections aimed at certain sectors of citizens who could be interested in participating or even obliged to do so by a local bylaw (schools, small shops, offices, etc.). For this, the page should have a short description of the service: target users, the routes it covers, the timetable, how to deliver it and, above all, with an explanation or access to a form to fill in to join the service (form, , telephone, etc.). Good examples: León, Granada, A Coruña and Pamplona (the latter due to the ease in finding it, not for the content). Description of the treatment process The general public are part of the first step in waste management, they hand it over, but they are not always aware of the evolution of the process and it is important because, if they do not know how and where the waste is treated, it is logical that any incident in the system leads to suspicion about the system as a whole and a lack of motivation. Therefore, the process that the waste follows after its handing over and the facilities where it happens should be explained. Normally, the process is common or differs very slightly from one city to another. However, it is worthwhile explaining it to remind the general public why the effort they have made handing it over where indicated and what it will be transformed into are important. Nevertheless, it is not much good knowing about the process if it is not contextualised. Identifying that paper is selected and is cleaned in such and such a plant is useful so that they see that it is not just a theoretical explanation, that the means have been implemented so that it happens day after day, and it highlights the work of the companies dedicated to waste management tasks. If it is also a nearby company, the general public will feel that they are part of the management or group. A good explanation about treating paper will identify the company that collects the paper from the container, will state that it goes to a recovery plant that cleans it, classifies it and packets it in bundles that are later taken to a recycling paper plant, which utilises paper for recycling to manufacture recycled paper reels that are later transformed into such and such a product. Typical recovery companies are CARPA, MAREPA and URBASER and recycling companies would be SAICA PAPER, HOLMER PAPER and others. Town councils sign contracts with waste paper management companies and in the conditions they can ask to be kept informed about where the paper for recycling is sent to be recycled and the results obtained. For batteries, we should explain who collects the content of the containers, which temporary storage centre they are taken to, which treatment plant they are then taken to and how the bat-

14 What the municipal information 14 teries are processed. In the same way as for paper, the town councils sign agreements that state the conditions of the service and may demand information about the facilities they operate and the results obtained when signing the conditions. Of the pages we consulted, there were 14 cities in which we found no information at all about waste processing. Less information is given about this aspect than about collecting it and, when information is given, it usually focuses on the physical means (containers, lorries, companies responsible, facilities, etc.). If they talk about waste, they focus on the line of plastic packaging, cans and cartons or other remains (they list the transfer plants, the landfill work, including building waste), but there are very few cases in which the processes for other waste, such as paper, were described. We did not find any website that informed about how batteries are processed, the most they did was identify the SIG (Integrated Waste Management System) with which they work, Ecopilas, but there is no information about the specific processing of this waste or the facilities where they are recycled, or the plants (on the Ourense website there was, but you need to look in the "Agenda 21" document where it says that they are collected by Urbaser and that Sogarisa takes them to a secure landfill. What a way of recycling!). Of the pages that identify the process and/or plants, we would mention Granada, because it describes the process used for paper in detail (text with photos, although it identifies the recovery company, but not the recycling company). We would also mention Terrassa and Las Palmas because, although they are not comprehensive, they use appealing infographics with the life-cycle in which they give some information (the Terrassa site says who transports it, but nothing more; Las Palmas gives the name of the industrial estate where the paper recovery plant is located, but not the name or any more information). Something similar happens in Vitoria, which states in a text that there is a privately owned classification plant in Jundiz for paper collected from containers. Albacete and Ourense provide little information on their websites, but complete, detailed information can be found (including photos of the recovery company) in the document that can be downloaded. Paper and cardboard thrown in the blue container Correct selection and treatment Madrid City Council The following only give general information: Cádiz, where they talk about "national authorised recovery companies" for paper, Barcelona in a plain text or Madrid (a schema that would be useful for any website). Obtaining PAPER FOR RECYCLING: new raw material for obtaining paper Terrassa City Council Recycled paper, cardboard, boxes, new packaging

15 Data on the results of the waste management What the municipal information Some pages provide links to material of the Ecoembes or Ecopilas (Extended Producer Responsibility Systems - EPR), but the information is not specifically for what happens in each municipality and does not cover all kinds of waste (for example, Cáceres). Oviedo provides links to companies involved in waste management for the municipality, but it does not state what each of them receive, or how they process it or how the waste gets there. We found a few examples of websites that indicate what the waste has been transformed into and when they do so, it is usually general, non-contextualised information (León, Madrid, Malaga and Cádiz). Giving data is important so that citizens can see the results of their collaboration, to be convinced of the use of the service. Separating waste requires an individual effort and can become "tedious" if we do not see that it is transformed into something positive for society as a whole. It also serves the institutions by giving them credibility and transparency, because at the end of the day it is a public service that is used to improve the sustainability of cities. They should, as a minimum, inform about: - The quantity of waste collected. 10 out of 35 municipal websites visited do not give any information about this data (Jaén, Valladolid, Torrejón, Cádiz, Gijón, Santiago de Compostela, Valencia, Badajoz, Ciudad Real and Elche). mendable to separate each of the fractions per type of collection (differentiate what is collected in the blue containers, from the special collections such as door-to-door commercial cardboard collection service). Good example: Table with data broken down by material, type of collection, by month and updated (Albacete). Albacete City Council León City Council The data should be broken down, as a minimum, into materials or fractions collected (to know whether we recycle a lot of or a little paper, the total quantities of waste collected in the municipality or the amount of the waste collected in an Autonomous Community are not sufficient). It would also be recom- Updated: to get an idea about where we stand, data for 2007 or earlier, before the economic crisis, when we were living a different kind of reality, are not useful. San Sebastián is an example of a city which offers very good information but from

16 What the municipal information But it is not the only one displaying obsolete data, Cáceres, Santander and Palma de Mallorca have data from 2006; Ourense and Murcia from 2005; whilst Malaga y Albacete provide recent data from The most recent data should be shown next to the preceding data as the most main interest is to see the evolution. In the digital area, there are some municipalities able to inform about collections in the previous months (see Albacete table), but others only collect the data in the form of a one-off informative flash (the case of Gijón) and there was a complete lack of interest found on the Santiago de Compostela page, where they did not even bother to compile them and directly uploaded the text that follows which we found to be indignant: Recycling and waste management It is complicated to provide conclusive information about the percentage that each kind of waste represents of all the waste generated in Santiago. Santiago de Compostela City Council In a format that is easy to understand. We already mentioned in the general part that cities such as Palma de Mallorca give information in plain text and this is not easy to digester, it should at least be presented in tables or, better still, as a bar chart. It is advisable that the ratios achieved are represented accompanied by a reference value that encourages an improvement in participation, greater involvement, that can be an objective set on a local scale, the value of the current regulation, or the average collection levels during the same period of time for the region or for the country. León City Council In a space of its own, that is easy to find. It would be logical for it to be found in the waste section, but sometimes people are referred to other parts of the town council or company website (for example in Las Palmas you need to go to the Observatory, in Barcelona you will find it in City Figures, in Santander in an article in the six monthly magazine, in Logroño in news flashes, in Ourense in the Agenda 21 report, in Marbella in the annual management report of the company that handles it, etc.). The omissions or contradictions found were curious, such as the case of Murcia and Seville, because they give information on the kilos collected and the total number of containers for all kinds of waste, yet for batteries, they only give the number of containers and not the kilos. It says where they are collected, but not how much. - Environmental advantages of correct management. We feel it is correct that data should be given about the benefits of recycling, but they should be based on rigorous studies, in other words, the information should be verifiable or based on previous technical studies, not on vague estimations or theoretical statements. Our attention was caught by the disparity and the number of environmental advantages that were announced on the pages we visited, including the precision with which the savings were stated, but we were only able to check that there were studies for paper with regard to: Reduction of the space taken in landfill sites: 70 kg of paper for recycling would occupy 1 m 3 (we could say that for every 700 kg of paper we save the space of a car, or that for every 100,000 tonnes of paper, we would save the space of a large football stadium). 16

17 What the municipal information Prevented emissions: For every kilo of paper we recycle, we prevent the emission in the landfill site of 900 g of CO2 (we could say that for every 150 kg recycled, we save the omissions of one 800-km trip by car) Increase the useful life of paper, or improve the use of the resource: Cellulose fibre can be recycled up to 7 times. However, we have found many cities which talk about and give figures for saving water and energy (Malaga, Albacete, Cádiz, Zaragoza, Santander and Barcelona), but the consumption depends on the productive process of each factory and not on whether they use virgin or recovered fibre (we have not found data on savings for using more recycled fibre in the process). It is also very frequent to refer to saving trees and preventing cutting them (Malaga, Cádiz, Santander, Zaragoza, Murcia, Albacete) and it is not true that by recycling we save trees as the cellulose fibre with which paper and cardboard are made come from trees that are planted and grown for this purpose (the ones that are required are planted, there is no negative balance and it is even less true that it is exactly 15 trees per tonne of recycled paper) Some town councils, such as Malaga, talk about "minimisation of the economic impact of the importation of paper" and it is not clear what they Murcia City Council Did you know that By recycling 1,000 kg of paper we prevent 15 trees from being cut down. This means that with the kilos of paper and cardboard recovered every week in Zaragoza, more than 4,000 trees are "saved". Zaragoza City Council are referring to or what this information is based on. Only Oviedo talks about the emissions prevented and the space in the landfill sites correctly. However, most of them mixed the statements with cuts and saving in water and energy. With regard to batteries, we would highlight the way that Santander creates awareness about the environmental advantages of collecting them. It is a pity that this is not directly on the website, but is in PDF format). We were surprised by the precision with which the level of contamination of a battery was determined on websites such as that of Vitoria (in terms of swimming pools) and that of Albacete (water drunk by family, see lower example). We have not been able to detect studies on which this information was based. 17 Santander City Council

18 What the municipal information All the environmental advantages should be contextualised. We do not offer the same information nor do we have the same strength of argument if we say that: For every tonne of paper recycled we prevent cutting a large number of trees and we save large amounts of water and energy. In addition, we prevent paper from being burnt: a ton of burnt paper can emit CO2 in similar quantities to half a ton of petrol. Santander City Council than if we precise the same concept in the following way: By recycling paper and cardboard we decrease contamination by reducing space in landfill sites (70 kg of recycled paper are equivalent to 1m 3 ) and reduce the emissions of CO2 at the landfill site (for every kilo of paper and cardboard we collect for recycling, we prevent the emission of 900 g of CO2 in a landfill site). Oviedo City Council The ideal thing would be to transform this data into space saved and emissions prevented based on the number of kilos recovered in the city every week or every month, but we found no examples of this. Regulations To get to know how waste management is regulated in the municipality, it is a good idea to have the waste bylaw at hand, sometimes also known as cleaning, various cleaning or similar. This contains important, useful aspects for citizens (above all when it comes to complaining) such as rights (services available, timetables, etc.) and the obligations or infractions that uncivil behaviour can involve. Almost all the municipalities have the document on the website, generally in PDF format, although often it is not found next to the rest of the information about waste, but is in another part (section on regulations on the website homepage, etc.). We have mentioned in this report that, up to a certain point, we can justify finding it grouped with the rest of the municipal regulations in a single section, but there is no sense having to go to thematic sections such as Public Health or other similar ones. When the town council has contracted the Green Line service (see explanation of the service in the "How to contact them" section) the information is sometimes more accessible and clearer. We could not find the local regulations for the town councils of Tarragona or Badajoz nor on others sites on which the information is given on the commu- nity website or that of the concessionaire company (the case of Marbella, Pamplona, San Sebastián, Cáceres, etc.) meaning that one would have to leave the town council website just to access it. The problem is that it is not always accessible. For example, the bylaws in Palma de Mallorca can be downloaded from the website of the town council in the Regulations section or in that of EMAYA, but it is so hidden that we had to be guided by the EMAYA technicians over the phone to be able to find it (4). Example of pages with accessible regulations can be found in Las Palmas, Ciudad Real and Madrid, with a banner or permanent button throughout the search. Other interesting information for citizens would be: - - The autonomous region, national or European regulations on waste, as well as the Management Plans for solid urban waste. To give the results and objectives in context. Service regulations or dossier of services contracted with respect to waste. 18 (4)

19 What the municipal information The dossier of services contracted is the contract document with the company that will collect the waste (if it is private, because if it is public there is no public bidding and there is no contract) where you can find information about the conditions of the work agreed on. This is desirable information because it offers transparency to the management and is also where the compulsory nature of providing data can be reflected if the town council has requested it. We could not find this easily on any of the pages consulted, on some sites, such as that of Zaragoza, it was hidden in the "Profile of the Contractor" section and we had to search among all the contracts (5) In Vitoria, we saw the Regulation of the waste construction plant, the composting plant and the exploitation of the "garbigune" (the Recycling Centre) How to contact the Town Council Citizen participation should be maintained over time and it is impossible to predict all the doubts and complaints that may arise on a daily basis. Therefore, it is important to leave open the possibility that visitors who may not find the solution to their answers or the information that they require may contact the town council or responsible company and be attended. If citizens are demotivated, they will stop participating actively in the system, and their role is essential. Therefore it is worthwhile giving at least one form of contact (an address, a Citizen Service telephone number, postal address, fax number, etc.). However the ideal solution is to offer several options to make sure that their queries can be dealt with. The very least that can be provided on a website is an address, but the ideal answer would be to offer a web option and a telephone number and to make sure it is sufficiently visible. Ayuntamiento de Barcelona It is also easy to find in San Sebastián, because there is a static tab on the right with the telephone number and e- mail address. In Granada all the possibilities are given (telephone number, fax number, address, etc.) and they are given on all the pages relating to waste. However, on other websites it would be complicated or there are few alternatives, for example in Badajoz a telephone number is only given on the website of the company, FCC, and it is a 900 telephone number; in Valencia, Seville and Santiago there is only the general information telephone number, Barcelona gives such importance to this matter that it has introduced the need to provide two forms of contact (telephone number and website) as compulsory in all the town council publications. (5) In Oviedo, they have activated a special system to deal with incidents, but as it is for the entire town council, you need to know where it is. In the waste section there is no reference to it (we found out about it after talking to those responsible for waste).

20 What the municipal information Some municipalities, aware of the importance of Citizen Service and of the limited resources they have, have decided to contract a service called Green Line that offers the possibility of dealing with environmental queries with a limited timetable (before 24.00) individually and free of charge, at the same time as providing information about environmental matters, one of which is waste. This is neither better nor worse, it is an option, which is particularly interesting for places with limited management capacity (small and medium). Of the cities we checked, we found the service in five of them (Gijón, Santander, Murcia, Malaga and Segovia) although on the website of the company it shows that Seville and Cáceres are also registered, but there is no mention of this on their municipal websites. We verified that they do not all offer the same information. For example in Gijón and Murcia you need to be registered to access the waste information, which seemed very demotivating to us, while in Segovia they are open to anyone who is interested. Everything depends on the contract that the authorities have signed. This is not bad, but it is still a service with an expiry date; some towns such as Segovia told us that they only have it for sure this year. In some of them, it is not sufficiently visible (in the website of Murcia town Council you are referred to the managing company for data on waste and nothing is mentioned about the Green Line, the link is only given in a side button which we missed during fieldwork). Sometimes it is a shame that there is more information in this external channel than on the town council website (for example in Malaga, as is the case with the map of the collection points). i Interesting links It is interesting to provide links to companies related to waste in the municipality, either companies that manage waste directly (FCC, ROS ROCA, TRAPEROS EMAUS, URBASER, etc.) or the EPR Systems with which you have agreements (ECOEMBES, ECOPILAS etc.). However, initiatives focusing on creating awareness are particularly worthwhile (Zaragoza's Urban Environment Classroom) or preventing waste by means of exchange, places for repairing (San Sebastián) or for donating ("I don't throw it away" campaign in Pamplona). Sometimes it is hard to find the section, as is the case in Las Palmas which has a section with a lot of information in the Information and Citizen Services section. If you manage to find it, it is very comprehensive (6). Another page with a lot of links is Vitoria. 20 (6)

21 Conclusions Half the municipal websites visited did not pass the test (only 16 out of 25 were acceptable, 46%), meaning that there is a long way to go in improving information about waste on municipal websites. Only three cities got a good score: Granada, Albacete and León. The others merely passed the test. About collection: this is essential information and more than half the websites failed in this area (22 out of 35, or 63%). What is worse was that six cities do not give any information about how or where the waste is collected. There are good examples in seven cities, distributed both in the north as well as the south, both large as well as small cities (León, Granada, Pamplona, Albacete, Vitoria, Tarragona and Palma de Mallorca). About processing: this is the section given the worst score, in other words, the section with the least comprehensive information that most needs improving. Only four cities passed and we did not find a single comprehensive example. In this way it is impossible to give the system transparency and credibility. About data: 17 cities (half) failed by not giving information, being out of date or talking about environmental advantages that are not the case. Good examples were found for Albacete and León. About regulations: almost all the websites offered access to this information, although it was not always easy to find. In many of them, we needed to use search engines or general sections of the town council. There should be access from the sections in which the rest of the information about waste is given, whether they are concessionaire companies or the town council itself and the general regulation should be accompanied by the dossier of service conditions. About contacting them: in almost all cases the town council could be contacted, but not all the pages made this easy and in many cases one had to use the general contact to the town council. Some town councils have outsourced this service to the Green Line initiative. The final scores can be consulted in the study dossier on the OCU i website, where you will also find links to the pages that contain most of the information found. The exception is Elche, as it does not have data in the table because no information was given. 21 i

22 Recommendations How the information should be presented So that information on paper waste on municipal websites helps to achieve, maintain and improve recycling objectives, the OCU report indicates that the following characteristics should be found: Easily accessible, grouped and structured Clear, understandable language and in all the official languages of the municipality, as well as in English in tourist areas or in other languages when there is a significant immigrant population Appealing, visually attractive (examples, images, graphics, infographics, etc.) Updated Sufficient in basic aspects 22

23 Recommendations Five key contents 1 2 WASTE COLLECTION: type of containers and location (map), how to deliver or deposit the waste (folded, without a plastic bag, inside the container), how the special waste collection services work (for example, door to door for cardboard from small shops or schools or offices), timetable and frequency of collections, changes in the services, etc. PROCESS AND TREATMENT of the waste collected until its final destination. A good explanation about treating paper, as given in the report, will identify the company that collects the paper from the container, will state that it goes to a recovery plant that cleans it, classifies it and packets it in bundles that are later taken to a recycling paper plant which utilises this paper for recycling to manufacture recycled paper reels that are later transformed into different products. 3 INFORMATION which should be updated, about the amount of waste collected, broken down by material and collection service (blue container, commercial door to door, etc.) and information about the benefits of recycling based on serious studies. To promote and facilitate the collaboration of users it is important, according to the OCU, that those responsible in the town council inform about the results of citizen participation. It is a good idea to inform about the benefits of recycling and to provide environmental information but, according to the report, only if it is based on verified studies such as emissions or the space in landfill sites. 4 5 MUNICIPAL REGULATIONS on waste management: it is a good idea to offer the local bylaws on waste and other regulations of a wider scope. CONTACT for citizens who wish to consult questions by phone or by that is sufficiently visible on the website, links to companies related to waste in the municipality and other pages of interest and initiatives focusing on creating awareness. 23

24 OCU is an independent, non-profit consumer organisation which has the aim of defending consumers' rights and improving the quality of life of its members by offering useful, transparent information and services that improve decision-making in the area of consumption. We would like to contribute to constructing a society in which consumers can carry out their rights freely and are protected against industry abuses. A more sustainable society, promoting consumer habits and helping consumers to make the most suitable decisions for them and their environment. We believe in dialogue, in truthful information, in transparency and in the power of consumer decisions as a driving force behind social progress. OUR VALUES INDEPENDENCE TRANSPARENCY INFLUENCE CONVENIENCE Published by OCU - Organisation of Consumers and Users C/ Albarracín, Madrid. Published in July 2014 This report belongs to OCU and its publishing company OCU EDICIONES. Unless expressly authorised by OCU and/or its publishing company, OCU EDICIONES, any kind of reproduction, transmission, adaptation, translation, modification, communication to the public, for profit or non-profit uses, or any other exploitation of all or part of the content of this report, by any means, whether electronic, mechanical or other, is expressly forbidden. Design and layout: