General warning about rubbish disposal in the summer months

2010-07-22

A reminder to residents , and a warning for holiday makers who may not know the law, that there are very strict laws regarding disposal of rubbish in the region of Murcia.

It is completely ILLEGAL to put rubbish in bins before 9om at night.

This is due to the fact that most bins are located in residential areas, and during the summer the heat can provoke extremely unpleasant odours, and as most bins are emptied overnight, rubbish has less chance of fermenting if dumped once the sun has gone down.

There are steep fines of between 150 and 750 euros for bin misuse, and we do know of ex-pats who have been caught and fined, so the fines are not an idle threat.

 

We're putting this out because a release came in from Totana today reminding their residents of the scale of the fines, informing them that they are increasing police patrols to watch out for bin abuse and requesting that prunings are not put in the containers for domestic food waste( which also carries a fine.).

 

Totana will collect domestic prunings and garden waste free of charge, this info is already in the gardening pages for anyone who may be interested in this free service.

Many councils are now installing subterranean bins which are a lot cleaner and less smelly than the standard on the street bins to combat the heat/small issue, and recycling bins are widely available for those who wish to recycle.

 

If you're on holiday, green is glass, yellow is paper and blue is tin cans, plastics and "bricks" the type of container milk and fruit juice come in. Olive oil can also be recycled at many supermarkets, and eco-parques will take virtually everything else.

 

We always laugh when looking back at our experience when we first moved to a little hilltop town where no-one spoke English and we didn't speak Spanish.

We put our bag in the bin, but 5 minutes later it was back on our front doorstep, a process which was repeated three times.

We put it back in the bin and hid behind the door to see what was going to happen, and yanked the door open just as our wizened old new neighbour was putting it back on our doorstep.

She shot off in rapid Spanish, pointed up the hill to the castle which loomed above us, then simulated someone firing a gun, boom, boom, made a gesture of throat slitting and disappeared off into her house, banging the door firmly behind her.

Another neighbour then came out and pointed at her wrist and eventually by drawing on a piece of paper , communicated that we couldn't use the bin until 9pm.

It wasn't until our Spanish improved to communication level that we learnt the old ladies' brother had been dragged to the castle and shot during the civil war fallout, and the old lady had been terrified of the forces of the law ever since.

 

Whilst these days shooting isn't an option, 150-750  euros is a lot to lose if you genuinely don't know the law, so if you see an unwitting holidaymaker committing "bin abuse" do them a favour and  warn them to take care, a fine like that can go a long way towards ruining a holiday and coffers are groaningly empty at the moment.

 

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