In 2015, the cement industry in Catalonia prevented 308,983 tonnes of waste from being disposed of in landfills, an amount equivalent to more than 90 Olympic pools, accounting for 13.68% of the total on a national scale. This and other information are collected in the latest update, with data from 2015, on the report “Recycling and recovery of waste in the cement industry in Spain”, prepared by the Cerdà Institute and presented in Barcelona by the Cement Labor and Environment Foundation (CEMA Foundation).
“From the Catalan administrations, an important effort has been made in recent years to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill, an aspect in which the cement industry plays a crucial role. Sending a ton of waste to a landfill in Catalonia today costs 64.5€ per tonne, 17€ more than the Spanish average, where the cost is 46.2€ / t. The introduction of deterrent charges to landfill waste is the most effective way to improve recycling rates and to convert non-recyclable waste into resources, in line with the EU’s circular economy policies”, explained Dimas Vallina, director of CEMA Foundation, during the presentation.
“Countries around us such as Austria, Germany or Belgium are aware of this and penalize the cost of sending waste to landfill: 96€ / t, 140€ / t and 148,5 €/ t, respectively. There, landfills have almost disappeared”, added the managing director of CEMA.
Material and energy valorisation
In 2015, four cement factories in Catalonia -Alcanar, Montcada i Reixac, Sant Vicenç dels Horts and Santa Margarida i els Monjos- consumed a total of 139,340 tonnes of alternative raw materials, 9.2% of the total of the Spanish cement industry, which amounted to 1,509,751. Catalonia is the Community with the greatest variety of alternative raw materials used in its facilities, with a total of 20 types between 2004 and 2015, years covered by the study.
The percentage of energy substitution of fossil fuels for waste in the Catalan cement industry reached 25.1%, 1.7 percentage points above the national average (23.4%), but very far from other like Austria (75.1%), Germany (64.6%) or Belgium (50%). This practice has prevented the emission into the atmosphere of 171,639 t of CO2, equivalent to the emissions of 114,426 vehicles in a year.
The communication from the European Commission on Circular Economy presented by a speaker of the Commission states that “When waste cannot be avoided or recycled, in most cases from the environmental point of view to an economic one, it is preferable to recover their energy content instead of depositing them in landfills”. The cement industry plays a key role in this new paradigm of circular economy, taking advantage of the calorific value of non-recyclable waste.
Ferran Falcó i Isern, General Secretary of Territory and Sustainability of the Generalitat de Catalunya, closed down the presentation, which included the participation of, among others, the director of Communication of Cembureau (European Association of Cement Manufacturers), Jessica Johnson, who explained the barriers and opportunities existing in different EU countries to the energy recovery of waste; and the director of the environment area of the Cerdà Institute, Miguel Hernández.