New rubbish collection system will be ready by the end of summer

The new system of rubbish collection in the old part of the city, which involves dropping the bags of rubbish down shutes rather than depositing them in containers, should be ready by the end of the summer. The centre where the bags will end up is almost ready. It has been built in the Avenida Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga, close to the EMAYA offices at the beginning of Calle Joan Maragall. The new system will mean an end to the unsightly containers in the historical old part of the city. They have been replaced by 400 shutes, down which the bags of rubbish must be dropped. A suction system will carry them along underground tubes to the central collection area. The entire process will be controlled by computers, according to Arturo Cadenas, the managing director of EMAYA. He added that the suction system will be introduced gradually, sector by sector. Once the rubbish is carried to the central collection area it will be compacted and kept until it is removed every night in the regular manner. The collection lorries will enter through a tunnel and will carry the rubbish to the plant at Son Reus, where it will be converted into compost or incinerated. The network of underground tubes along which the rubbish will travel is more than ten kilometres long. Once the system is fully operational, the containers, which often block the narrow streets in the city centre, will be removed.