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The Waste Management System of Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla before the economic crisis started across EU Member States in 2008

By Tim Byrne MCIWM Chartered Waste Manager. ISWA International Waste Manager Associate Member of ATEGRUS

The tourist town of Lepe, along with the resorts of Islantilla and La Antilla, are on Spain’s Costa de la Luz in the Province of Huelva. Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla are on the Gulf of Cádiz a sunspot in the summer for holidaymakers where golfers are attracted by nearby golf ranges. Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla are close to the Portugese border with the Guadiana River running between Portugal and Spain. The closest town on the Spanish border is Ayamonte, while in Portugal, the nearest port is Vila Real de Santo António. Until the suspension bridge which links both countries was constructed in 1991, ferry boats were used to cross from Spain to Portugal, a distance of two miles.

In recent years, Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla have been developed for the tourist industry. The coastal resorts are very quaint and have natural unspoilt sandy beaches and small fishing villages. The hotels and apartments are of a low height design fitting into the elegance of the natural surroundings compared to other tourist resorts along Spain’s coastline which have high hotel and apartment blocks.

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Waste Collection

Due to rising numbers of tourists in these three coastal resorts, volumes of waste have increased over the last ten years. In the early 2000’s Urbaser S.A., Spain’s second largest waste management contractor (owned by Dragados S.A. at the time) was given a seasonal, four month waste collection contract from the 1st June to the middle of September every year to collect waste in Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla. This helped the Gestión Integral del Agua de Huelva S.A. (GIAHSA) the public company who has responsibility for collecting municipal waste from all of the coastal towns along Huelva’s coastline. This was achieved by Urbaser S.A. supplying three rear loading waste collection vehicles for the operation. These had Geesinknorba GPM II, GPMII or Geesinknorba ‘N’ Series, Ros Roca Cross or Faun Rotopress or Variopress type compaction bodies of varying sizes from 16 cubic metres up to 22 cubic metres in capacity. The types of chassis used were Iveco Eurocargo, Iveco Eurotech, Iveco Stralis, Renault Midlum, Renault Manager, Renault Premium, Mercedes Benz SK and Mercedes Benz Atego types in both two and three axle configurations. The two axle collection vehicles were of 18 tonnes gross vehicle weight while the three axle collection vehicles were of 26 tonnes gross vehicle weight with a rear steer axle. The chassis had a mixture of Allison automatic transmissions and conventional manual transmissions.

Urbaser S.A. provided the three collection vehicles as well as nine members of staff, three drivers and six loaders, to man the collection vehicles over the four month period of the contract. Urbaser also had three additional spare staff, one driver and two loaders, for the four month contract too. The spare staff were used to cover holiday entitlement, sickness and absence etc. for the three collection vehicles which had collection routes in Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla.

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The collection of municipal waste began at midnight, seven days a week by Urbaser S.A. under the instructions of GIAHSA, who were still carrying out the collection of waste from other towns and resorts along the coast of Huelva in this period. These included Isla Canela, Isla del Moral, Isla Cristina, La Redondela, Cartaya, El Terrón, El Rompido, El Portil, Punta Umbría, Mazagón etc. Urbaser’s collection vehicles were manned with a driver and two loaders. Their operatives would empty the 1100 litre containers of municipal waste at the communal collection points situated along the streets in Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla. The containers’ contents would be emptied into the hopper of the waste collection vehicle using its bin lifting equipment. Each collection vehicle would collect two loads of waste each night. The first load would be full by 02.00hrs and the last load at 06 - 07.00 hrs. Any excess waste placed by the 1100 litre containers was also collected by the collection crews. This was to reduce the build up of odours produced by the waste in the warm climate.

To make sure that all of the 1100 litre waste containers as well as excess waste had been cleared from Lepe and the two coastal towns, Urbaser’s collection crews were paid to work an eight hour shift. If one collection crew had completed their collection round first, they would go and help one of the other two collection vehicles working in either Lepe or one of the other coastal resorts. The eight hour shift gave adequate time for the other two collection vehicles to go and help the third collection vehicle if it had broken down once they had finished their own collection rounds.

This shows that Spain's private contractors employ best practise by not having their operatives working on a 'Task and Finish' basis but instead adopting a ‘Joint Finish’ policy with the three collection vehicles finishing at 08.00 hrs. This reduces the possibilities of accidents happening. This working technique also gives a far higher standard of waste collection service.

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Waste Transfer and Waste Treatment

When the waste collection vehicles were full, they made their way to the waste transfer station at La Redondela which was situated between the town of Lepe and the resort of Isla Cristina. The waste transfer station was operational each evening until mid morning seven days a week. This gave adequate time for the hook lift vehicles to load full hermetically sealed roll – on – off containers at the waste transfer station to be transported for discharge at the waste treatment plant and also time for the empty containers to be returned ready to receive the next night’s waste. The waste transfer station was one of three facilities which were operated by Reciclados del Tinto y del Odiel, S.L. (RETINOD) on behalf of the Diputación Provincial de Huelva - Area de Medio Ambiente - the Environmental Services Division of the County Council.

The other two waste transfer stations were situated in Huelva City which processed municipal waste from the municipalities of: Huelva, Aljaraque, Punta Umbría, Gibraleón, San Juan del Puerto, Trigueros, Beas, Lucena del Puerto, Moguer and Palos de la Frontera. The waste transfer station at Almonte processed waste from the municipalities of: Almonte, Hinojos, Chucena, Bollullos Par del Condado, La Palma del Condado, Villarrasa, Villalba del Alcor, Escacena del Campo and Paterna del Campo. All three waste transfer stations opened in the evening to receive waste collected through the night by the private contractors and public companies collecting waste for the surrounding municipalities which had varying starting times. The La Redondela waste transfer station received waste from Lepe, Islantilla and La Antilla which was collected by Urbaser S.A. on behalf of GIAHSA over the four month period while Ayamonte was collected by INIMA U.T.E. SERAYA - Excmo.

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Ayto. DE Ayamonte and Isla Canela, Isla del Moral, Isla Cristina, La Redondela, Villablanca and Cartaya was collected by GIAHSA.

On arrival, all collection vehicles were weighed so that the waste transfer plant knew the net payload of waste being received at the plant by each incoming vehicle. Collection vehicles were re weighed again after discharging their loads and before they left the plant so that, their tare weight could also be recorded. Once weighed, the collection vehicles proceeded to a single Kiggen static compactor to discharge their load. The collection vehicles reversed up to the unloading aperture and discharged their load into it. The waste was compressed into hermetically sealed roll – on - off containers. Due to there being only one compactor for the collection vehicles to discharge into, there was normally a large queue of waste collection vehicles waiting to discharge their loads in the early hours 01.30-02.00 hours when the collection vehicles delivered their first loads to the plant and again at 06 - 07.00 hours when the collection vehicles delivered their last loads to the plant. The waste transfer plants at Huelva and Almonte had two Kiggen static compactors because of processing larger tonnages of waste from the surrounding municipalities.

Once the waste had been compacted into hermitically sealed roll – on – off containers, it was transported using a hook lift roll – on - off semi trailer vehicle operated by Reciclados del Tinto y del Odiel, S.L. (RETINOD) to the Villarrasa waste treatment plant in Huelva Province. The plant at Villarrasa was also operated by Reciclados del Tinto y del Odiel, S.L. (RETINOD) on behalf of the Diputación Provincial de Huelva - Area de Medio Ambiente - the Environmental Services Division of the County Council. It treated all waste produced and collected across

www.ategrus.org the Province of Huelva and received waste from the three waste transfer stations in the Province while waste collected by municipalities closer to the plant delivered their waste directly in conventional waste collection vehicles. The plant had a dirty materials recycling facility (MRF). Incoming waste was deposited into a waste storage bunker which had an overhand travelling crane with a cactus grab. The cactus grab lifted the waste out of the waste storage bunker and placed the waste onto a conveyor where it was transported first into a series of trommel’s then onto a conveyor belt where recyclables were extracted by manual labour. The recyclable materials extracted from the process such as paper and cardboard, glass, ferrous and non ferrous metals, plastics – TETRAPACK, PET AND HDPE were stored to await collection for further processing at manufacturing plants across the Iberian Peninsula. The organic fraction of the waste recovered was sent for composting, while the reject fraction was land filled in an engineered cell next to the waste treatment plant.

Politics and Change

Since June 2010, GIAHSA terminated the waste collection contracts in the town of Lepe and the resort of La Antilla. This was due to the financial crisis and Lepe and La Antilla not signing up to MAS the commonwealth of Andalucia.

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GIAHSA continued to provide waste collection services to the neighbouring tourist resort of Islantilla. Lepe and La Antilla went without a waste collection service for 24 hours. Because of this, the town of Lepe awarded an emergency waste collection contract to Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC) with immediate effect to provide waste collection services to Lepe and the coastal resort of La Antilla. In April 2012, Lepe terminated the temporary waste collection contract with FCC and instead signed a ten year contract with FCC to provide waste collection services for Lepe and La Antilla. FCC has since then invested in four new vehicles for the new contract which were delivered to Lepe in April 2013. These comprise: two Scania 6x2 rear steer 26 tonne chassis with Ros Roca Cross 20 cubic metre rear loaders with binlift for emptying 1100 litre containers containing municipal waste in Lepe and the resort of La Antilla, an 18 tonne two axle tipper truck with crane for emptying of glass and paper banks (recyclables) in Lepe and La Antilla and a truck for washing and disinfecting the interior and exterior of the 1100 litre containers installed at communal collection points for the storage of municipal waste once they had been emptied in Lepe and La Antilla.

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In conclusion, both Urbaser S.A. in partnership with GIAHSA provided both residents and tourists of the town of Lepe, and the coastal resorts of Islantilla and La Antilla with a sustainable waste collection and transfer system over the tourist season before the economic crisis sadly started in 2008 and the termination of the waste collection contracts by GIAHSA in Lepe and La Antilla in June 2010.