Castalla updates the service fee for the collection, treatment and disposal of solid urban waste

• The plenary meeting of the City Council has approved a progressive increase in this rate to comply with European regulations until 2025

The Castalla City Council has approved the update of the service fee for the collection, treatment and disposal of solid urban waste in the town. The government team has brought forward this measure with the support of Compromís and a councilor of Ciudadanos (Cs) during the Extraordinary Plenary Session held yesterday. For their part, the PSOE councilors; the rest of Cs and Vox have voted against. Thus, Castalla complies with Valencian, state and European waste regulations.

The mayor of Castalla, Jesús López, has defended this measure because “it is simply a matter of complying with European regulations: to collect the cost of the service through the collection of the fee. This is not a political decision but an institutional responsibility, which many other Consistories of various colors and parties have also assumed”.

According to data from the City Council, the cost of the service of collection, treatment and disposal of solid urban waste in Castalla at present is 898,651.39 euros, a figure higher than the collection, which is 348,655 euros. This difference between cost and collection is what the rate must cover with this update.

For its part, the Councillor for Finance, Raquel Garcia, explained that “the price of the rate per citizen in Castalla rises from 40 to 60 euros per year, an increase of 50%, lower than that which other localities have been forced to apply.” In this sense, the mayor said that “the previous government team left without raising this rate and now it is up to us to update it progressively to comply with the law by 2025 and not receive sanctions from the European Union”.

The measure has been taken after the publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE) of Law 7/2022 of April 8, concerning contaminated waste for a circular economy. This rule applies the “polluter pays” principle, so that the costs related to waste management will have to be borne by the initial waste producer, entirely local competence.

With this decision, taken by the municipal plenary, Castalla assumes a non-deficit rate for the provision of the solid urban waste collection service. The mayor of Castalla, Jesús López, has reminded the citizens that “good waste management by the residents of Castalla will result in a better functioning of the service and a reduction of the fee we must pay. Citizen awareness, civility and training are a fundamental part of the whole process”.