Post by account_disabled on Mar 13, 2024 9:15:52 GMT
It is now crucial to materialize waste regulations, overcoming the technical, economic and social challenges that policy makers and public managers will face in this process. By EDUARDO PERERO 4826 readings AUTHOR EDUARDO PERERO 11-10-2023 Having significantly renewed the legal framework for waste management in the last legislature, positioning Spain at the European forefront, with ambitious objectives and scope, and new tools; and with the renewal of executives at the municipal, regional and soon state levels, it is now crucial to materialize waste regulations, overcoming the technical, economic and social challenges that political leaders and public managers will face in this process. Beyond the logical differences that we all have to the resulting regulatory framework, it is time to apply it and break the inertia of waste management in recent decades. Evolve from mere waste collection, to avoid public health problems, to a change aimed at the general interest and the preservation of common goods. Indeed, waste is no longer waste but a potential resource that becomes a common good to preserve and convert into a new raw material. The economic fabric increasingly recognizes its vulnerabilities in the supply of raw materials due to international tensions, the control of certain nations over critical raw materials and transportation management, etc.
This has generated a growing demand from the sector to implement circularity in value chains, thus ensuring their operability and subsistence. Greater budget allocation The task is not easy. The agents involved will have high demands to meet their objectives, although we consider that local entities will be key to ensuring that most of the objectives are met. In 2022, the Conama Foundation published the report “Municipal waste management. The opinion of the technicians”, which included a survey of 220 municipalities on the objectives of CZ Leads the Law on Waste and Contaminated Soils for the Circular Economy. The results show the serious difficulties that local entities find themselves in facing the upcoming challenges. Clearly, Local Entities require greater financial resources than the current one to acquire the material and human resources necessary to meet the new requirements and competencies. New governance and co-responsibility To achieve the objectives of the new waste law, it is not enough to apply the distribution of powers established in the regulations. It is necessary for the State and the Autonomous Communities to assume real co-responsibility, supporting local entities and promoting joint collaboration programs. There are analogous negative precedents to learn from, such as the obligation for local entities to purify their wastewater.
Non-compliance resulted in community fines, resolved only with joint investment plans between the different administrative levels. It is necessary to test innovative governance mechanisms, sand box type testing spaces, advisory units for municipalities, collective learning mechanisms, strengthen spaces for dialogue or exchange of experiences. Local entities require a greater financial allocation than the current one to acquire the material and human resources necessary to comply with the new requirements and competencies. Planning It is essential to focus on extending and improving waste planning, which is still not widespread. This will help to dimension the necessary resources to make more solid decisions in economic, environmental and social terms, and ensure their execution. Adequate planning also facilitates the collection and analysis of data, as well as its communication with other administrations and the population. Waste rate A key focus for the new municipal executives is the adequate design or redesign of the waste rate, as an essential instrument to achieve the objectives, in accordance with the Law, covering the costs of waste collection and management and showing citizens the costs that they assume in their municipality. Accompanying the rate, despite its complexity, the implementation of generation payment mechanisms and bonuses for proactive behaviors must be analyzed, where a bonus/malus system is applied that charges the extra cost to the people, entities or administrations that do not fulfill their obligations.