Benidorm trains hotel and school staff to separate biowaste correctly

Benidorm council and Consorci Mare have launched a campaign to teach staff at hotels, primary and secondary schools how to separate biowaste correctly for collection in the brown bin.

Training is taking place at around twenty hotels and education centres in the municipality. On Tuesday, 3 November, one of the sessions was held at Gabriel Miró school.

The initiative follows a request from the council’s street cleaning and education departments, supported by hotel association Hosbec, to make use of the consortium’s environmental education service.

Training at the participating premises

The sessions are aimed at those who generate and dispose of this waste during their daily work: kitchen, back-of-house, dining room and cleaning staff at the establishments involved.

In primary and secondary schools, the activity is intended for employees responsible for separating waste, with the same aim of explaining what belongs in the brown bin and what must be kept out.

Street cleaning councillor Luis Navarro explains that unsuitable materials affect the treatment of the collected waste and can put the continuation of the service at risk.

From the July pilot to the new campaign

A pilot for separate biowaste collection was carried out on 31 July at a group of hotels and other establishments. Hotels continued the service throughout August, September and October, with results described as satisfactory by the council.

Navarro says legislation sets a maximum contamination rate of 20%, falling to 15% from 2027. That requirement prompted the council and Hosbec to propose targeted training at the establishments themselves.

The educators cover accepted and non-accepted materials, the most frequently detected contaminants, the use of compostable bags and containers, and the consequences of collected waste being rejected.

The campaign therefore combines practical guidance on separating waste with awareness of how sorting mistakes affect the subsequent treatment of the biowaste collected through this service.