The improvements made during 2017, which cost almost a million euros, and their final adjustments last year, have allowed the installation to continuously consolidate 10% waste recovery during 2018 and begin 2019 with a figure above 14%

The investment made two years ago in the Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery, managed by UTE TEM for the Maresme Consortium for Municipal Solid Waste Treatment, has allowed an increase in waste recovery of more than 42% in the first complete year since the work was finished. The aim of the remodelling, which involved an investment of around a million euros, was to optimize the selection of materials and increase the percentage of recycled waste.
 
“When work started in April 2017, we experienced an immediate increase in the percentage of recovered waste, and during the rest of the year, this figure continued to rise due to the different adjustments we made. In 2018, the recovery results haven’t dropped below double digits (10%) and we’ve begun 2019 with waste recovery above 14% in January and above 12% in the first quarter. These are figures which are difficult to achieve” said José Miguel Latasa, the plant manager at the Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery. “We are currently working on the second version of the remodelling to try to improve this recovery percentage even more” he added.
 
During the next few months a modification will be made which will allow an alternative to the energy produced from the biogas generated in biomethanisation, as well as maximising the use of this biogas without losing a part due to outages from the cogeneration engines. It will be used to heat the primary air in the waste to energy process, and this will allow the steam produced to be used for the generation of electricity rather than heating, which is what has happened until now. At the same time, to make the centre more efficient, the biomethanisation process will be strengthened in relation to the composting process, which is at its limit.
 
In addition, this year the new recovery line for glass after composting will begin running, which will allow the selection, classification and recovery of the glass which remains in the organic material at the end of its treatment process. This new sorting and recovery line will collect the glass which comes from the process of the refinement of compost-like material and the extraction of heavy materials from the biomethanisation pulper. With the implementation of this new line, it is predicted that the annual quantity of recovered glass will be 4,500 tonnes, with an increase in the recovery rate of 2% of the total tonnes that enter the plant.

The Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery, located in Mataró (Barcelona), is an installation specialised in the treatment of municipal and industrial solid waste which includes selection, composting, methanisation, and waste-to-energy plants. The centre therefore not only recovers recyclable materials, but it also produces electrical energy from non-recyclable materials through the waste-to-energy process, thus avoiding them being sent to landfill. The installation currently directly manages 280,000 tonnes of waste annually (more than 41,000 tonnes of other fractions are transferred) from the member municipalities of the Consortium in the Maresme and other areas such as the Vallès Oriental, providing a service to almost a million inhabitants.