• The Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery will incorporate a radioactive waste detection gantry and a continuous dioxin and furan sampling system to improve the safety and control of emissions from its facilities

• With a total investment of 260,557 euros, these improvements will be implemented to comply with the latest European regulations

Maresme Circular is implementing two important technological improvements at its Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery with the aim of reinforcing safety and transparency in its activities: the installation of a radioactivity detection gantry for waste lorries arriving at the plant and a continuous dioxin and furan sampling system for the two energy recovery lines.

This action responds to the obligation to adapt to the European guidelines on Best Available Techniques (BAT) defined by the European Commission for waste incineration. BATs form the basis of the technical conditions under which certain industrial activities must be carried out in order to reduce environmental impact and risks to human health as much as possible.

Entrance of waste lorries at the Maresme Integrated Waste Recovery Centre / Marga Cruz

Detection of radioactivity

The Maresme Waste Consortium has awarded Tecnologías Asociadas Tecnasa, S.L. the installation of a radioactivity detection gantry for 80,267 euros. This system, which is already in the manufacturing process and will be installed during January 2025 at the entrance to the Centre, will make it possible to detect the presence of radioactive waste in the refuse lorries entering the plant.

Although the Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery does not manage hospital or hazardous waste, domestic health care waste such as nappies, from people receiving chemotherapy treatments, may arrive. This measure increases safety in the treatment of the more than 190,000 tonnes of urban waste from the residual fraction managed by the Centre every year.

Continuous sampling of dioxins and furans

The Consortium has also awarded Pasch y Cía a contract worth 180,290 euros for the implementation of a new continuous dioxin and furan sampling system for the Centre’s two incineration lines, which will allow data to be collected over extended periods of up to five weeks. This methodology will provide more representative information than the once-a-quarter, 6 to 8-hour spot sampling that has been carried out until now.

Thanks to this technology, which will be implemented in the first quarter of 2025, it will be possible to calculate dioxin and furan emissions even more accurately, ensuring that regulatory emission limits are not exceeded.

This new automatic sampling reinforces Maresme Circular’s commitment to responsible and transparent environmental management and is in addition to other measures such as biological monitoring which, since the start-up of the incinerator in 1995, has determined that the exposure of the population of Maresme to the levels of dioxins, furans, polychlorinated biphenyls and heavy metals from the Centre’s energy recovery plant does not pose any risk to their health.

More safety and transparency

These improvements consolidate the Mataró waste treatment plant as a benchmark in waste management, aligned with the highest European standards of sustainability and safety.

With these actions, Maresme Circular reaffirms its commitment to protecting the environment and the health of citizens.

Energy recovery plant of the Maresme Integrated Waste Recovery Centre / Marga Cruz