Benidorm requests the Ministry to pay 30% of the subsidy for the implementation of selective collection systems and bio-waste

The Local Government Board has approved this morning to request the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Climate Emergency, and Ecological Transition to pay the advance payment of the aid for the value of 30% of the total subsidy granted for the implementation of new separate collections, especially bio-waste and improvement of existing ones, which are financed by the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan of the Generalitat Valenciana. A percentage that amounts to almost 442,000 euros.

Thus, Benidorm City Council will receive a total of 1,473,161.31 euros as a subsidy for the implementation of systems that will have to be implemented in the year 2025, according to the European directive and the new Spanish Waste Law (7/ 2022).

The global amount that the city will receive assumes that Benidorm will be the municipality of the Valencian Community that receives the most money for this concept in the four eligible lines. In fact, in three of the four lines, Benidorm manages to be the municipality that has received the most aid and only in one of them is it in second place.

Thus, in the so-called Line A, related to the separate collection of bio-waste, Benidorm will receive 1,217,323.31 euros, of the 3.55 million requested as an eligible cost. In-Line B, related to the implementation of community composting, the amount granted amounts to 81,238 euros, of the 265,510 that were requested. For Line C, collection of domestic oils, the aid will amount to 50,000 euros, of the 154,604 requested. Finally, in Line D, collection of textile waste, Benidorm has achieved 124,600 euros, of the 311,500 that were requested.

According to the Councilor for Street Cleaning, Luis Navarro, the achievement of aid in that amount means "that things have been done well and that there is a great technical work behind it." For this reason, the mayor wanted to "thank the effort and work carried out by the entire technical team that made the proposal that has allowed us to obtain these amounts ahead of any other municipality in the Valencian Community."

The resolution of the Ministry established that a first advance payment of 30% of the subsidized amount will be made once the granting of the aid has been resolved, while the rest of the amount will be paid through payments on account. This advance is the one that the Local Government Board has approved today to request the regional administration.

"We have to change the current collection system to adapt and comply with European regulations and we have a deadline of 2025 because if we don't there will be sanctions" recalled Luis Navarro, who also highlighted that adaptation to the regulations requires "that it appear in the new garbage collection contract" so "by obtaining this aid we will save a significant amount of money, which will not be passed on to the citizens".

The mayor has insisted that the improvements to adapt to the law "we were going to do them yes or yes", but now "it will mean a much smaller economic effort", specifically almost 1.5 million savings.

Navarro has specified that the implementation of these new collection systems "involves giving citizens many more facilities for the segregation of waste at source", so "all this must be reflected in the new contract". The Councilor for Street Cleaning has also advanced that the actions that will be carried out with these aids to adapt to the regulations will involve "expanding the recycling and segregation points so that the user has it much easier and within reach, in addition to having certain incentives for what you recycle”.

In short, he has concluded, "What we do is anticipate what is imposed on us from Europe and Spanish laws so that in 2025 we are fully prepared for what they ask of us."