Por Redaccion 
The Consortium for the Management of Solid Waste in Asturias (Cogersa) managed 108,888.59 tons of classified waste deposited by citizens in separate collection containers or in the network of clean points last year. This amount represents 24.3% of the total municipal waste treated (448,077.55 t) and, although it shows an improvement compared to 22.93% in 2023, it is still far from the legal goal of 50% by 2035.
RECYCLING PLANTS DATA
Regarding municipal collections, in the recycling plants operated by Cogersa in Serín, specifically 16,578.48 tons of light packaging (cans, cartons, plastic bottles, etc.) were received; 24,741.50 tons of paper and cardboard, 17,408.61 t of glass, 13,405.83 of organic matter, 10,039.57 of vegetable residues, 17,226.84 of furniture and utensils, and 9,487.27 of other recyclable waste, including oils, scrap metal, and batteries.
The main increase in these separate collections is in the organic fraction, which grew by 25.57% from 10,675.70 tons in 2023. According to Cogersa, this increase is largely due to the growing deployment of the brown container in thirty councils.
The fractions of the yellow container and the blue container also experience a significant improvement by receiving 4.85% more tons in the former and 5.17% more in the latter, compared to the previous year.
The arrival of glass in the green container, on the other hand, remained stable. The furniture and wood deposited by citizens in the «door-to-door» collections of municipalities or in the clean points network of Asturias increased by almost 9%.
COLLECTION RATE BY COUNCILS
In the separate collection rate, 14 of the 78 councils are above the average in Asturias, with Coaña, Oviedo, and Gijón leading the way; with rates of 33.27%, 31.71%, and 31.22%, respectively.
OTHER WASTE MANAGEMENT
In total, Cogersa received 872,308.72 tons of waste from domestic and commercial activities, industry, livestock, hospitals, and the construction and demolition sector, among others.
Many of these wastes were processed in preparation plants for recycling where they are sorted and packaged for shipment to authorized managers who transform them into recovered materials suitable for a new use.
One of the largest increases, almost 14%, was detected in the vegetable residues and manures delivered in Serín by agro-livestock farms and municipal gardening services, reaching 20,949.10 tons. All of them were transformed into high-quality compost, certified with the European Ecolabel, which Cogersa markets in various formats.
There was also a 15% increase in sludges from urban wastewater treatment plants, with 86,077.16 tons, which Cogersa also recycled into a material later sold under the Compost Aero brand.
The construction and demolition waste reached 177,835.40 tons, which is 6% higher than in 2023. Over 90% of them undergo recovery processes in a recycling plant that transforms them into aggregates and recycled materials.
In hazardous industrial waste (flammable, corrosive, toxic) from the manufacturing and processing industry, there was a significant 5.45% increase: 44,407.86 tons were treated, compared to 42,112 tons in 2023.