The use of the yellow container in Castilla y León grew by 32.3 percent from 2017 to 2021, which reflects that the recycling of containers is "an established habit between Castilian and Leonese society", they highlighted today from the Board. Thus, during the past year, each citizen deposited 15.3 kilograms of waste -compared to 11.6 in 2017- in the 15,558 yellow containers available to them, the equivalent of lowering the bag of containers once every six days , approximately.

In the case of the blue container, the increase in its use in the last five years was 6.6 percent. During the past year, Castilla y León separated and deposited 19.4 kilograms of paper and cardboard containers in the 21,803 blue containers that are located on public roads to recycle, one bag every eight days.

This figure stood at 18.2 kilograms on average per inhabitant in 2017.

Sources from the regional executive recall that last Tuesday World Recycling Day was celebrated, a date that was born to value this environmental habit that "is also becoming more and more consolidated among the citizens of Castilla y León."

The Minister for the Environment, Housing and Territory Planning, Juan Carlos Suárez-Quiñones, reiterated that the development of the Comprehensive Waste Plan for Castilla y León will be intensified, "with special attention to separate collection, promoting the principles of circular economy, supporting the material and energy recovery of waste and reinforcing training activities and environmental information, essential to achieve a more educated and therefore more aware society, essential for the success of any environmental policy».

For his part, Ángel Hervella, director of Local and Regional Management at Ecoembes, highlights that "these data are a reflection of the effort that the whole of Castilla y León society is carrying out in terms of recycling and circularity". "The Autonomous Community has taken a qualitative leap in this habit, achieving in just five years an increase of 32.3 percent in the use of the yellow container: there is will and desire to continue advancing".

In addition to through the containers on the street, the domestic containers were also collected in other spaces, such as in the more than 3,000 recycling points located in places of great concurrence (offices, hotels, restaurants, bars and cafeterias, as well as centers sports, among others).

Thus, in 2021 alone, the region has sent a total of 67,688 tons of plastic, metal, brik, paper and cardboard packaging to recycling facilities, which contributed significantly to the 1,570,513 tons of packaging sent to recycling facilities nationwide. national. In this way, the emission of 2.05 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere was avoided, the equivalent of what the heating systems of Asturias emit in one year. In addition, 20.50 million m3 of water and 5.27 million MWH of energy were saved.

The Ministry of the Environment, Housing and Territory Planning indicates that achieving these data is only possible with the "active" participation of all the actors that are part of the recycling cycle, as well as the implementation of various initiatives and projects to promote the selective collection of packaging.

Thus, the implementation of the yellow container in all the neighborhoods of Valladolid stands out. Specifically, throughout 2021, around 1,130 yellow containers were installed on the streets of the city so that its 300,000 inhabitants can properly separate their plastic containers, cans and cartons.

In addition, also last year, the Return and Reward System (SDR) Reciclos arrived in the municipality of Aranda de Duero. This SDR, aimed at promoting the recycling of beverage cans and plastic bottles through sustainable and social rewards for recyclers, represents a further step in the evolution of the current system managed by Ecoembes. Reciclos is already present in 255 yellow containers in the town of Burgos, to which technology has been incorporated so that the user can receive the rewards when they go to recycle.

In the Autonomous Community, there has also been a decided commitment to environmental education and citizen awareness. Thus, in the 2020-2021 academic year there were already more than 100 teachers from Castilla y León who were part of Naturaliza, the Ecoembes environmental education project that seeks to bring the environment into the classroom. In addition, over the past year, almost 2,000 Castilians and Leonese freed 205 natural spaces in the region from garbage thanks to their participation in LIBERA, the project created by SEO/Birdlife in alliance with Ecoembes to raise awareness about the problem of garbage.

Added to these initiatives is the involvement of 78 Castilian and Leonese ecolodges that are part of "El Camino del Reciclaje", a project in which Ecoembes seeks to make pilgrims aware of the conservation of the Camino de Santiago, promoting the recycling of containers that are generated during each stage and the fight against the abandonment of waste.