Campaigns that try to raise awareness among the population so that they do not throw wipes, compresses or cotton swabs into the toilet have no effect. At least, not at the desired levels, because the data reveals that the volume of garbage that the Canal de Isabel II removes every year of wastewater has not stopped growing in recent years: in 2023 around 36,000 tons were recorded, 6,000 more than in 2022 and the highest figure since 2018.
The public company that manages the water service in the region ensures that each year it separates the equivalent of five bags of garbage for every Madrid resident. These are the dimensions of a problem that costs several million euros. The annual extra cost has been quantified in an average figure of 2.2 million to face the removal of waste, the extra labor for cleaning the pumps, the replacement of those that are inoperative and the increase in the energy bill, Canal sources detail.
But the bill is even higher Because to this amount we must add the investments made in the treatment plants so that this waste does not compromise the operation of the facilities, the environmental quality of the rivers and the ecosystems. Between 2021 and 2023, around 9 million were invested in specific equipment to control this waste.
The problems associated with these discharges not only fall on the purification system, It also affects the workers who work there. and in sanitation networks. “They are subjected to significant occupational risks when they have to unclog pipes, pumps or other elements,” they explain from Canal. To protect them, and also to safeguard the system itself, the Madrid public company has launched numerous awareness campaigns in the past – the famous ‘wipes monster’ is the result of one of them – and in fact they are finalizing a new one for the second half of this year.
“The problem is at origin: waste is thrown into the toilet that should go to the regular circuit“, recently stated the CEO of Canal, Mariano González, in an appearance at the Assembly. This is not a problem exclusive to the Community of Madrid or Spain, González stressed, to highlight that in his opinion it needs “a coral solution.” with a “pedagogy” work in which all the agents working in water management are involved. “The Ministry (of Ecological Transition and Agenda 2030) has a lot to say,” assured the CEO of Canal, who insisted before. the deputies of the Environment Commission that we are faced with “a question of civility”, of changing habits, of not using the toilet as a garbage can.
Wipes, other hygiene items such as pads or tampons, makeup remover pads, cotton swabs or even chewing gum should never be flushed down the toilet. not even if the package says they are biodegradable. “The period of time that elapses from when a solid waste is flushed down the toilet until that wastewater reaches the treatment plant is not enough for this waste to biodegrade, so the bars and sieves of the treatment plants become authentic receiving panels for this urban waste,” they clarify from Canal.
Once removed, the enormous volume of garbage evacuated in trucks to landfills, which is the destination they would have gone to in the first place if they had been placed in a trash can. But at this point we must not lose sight of the fact that Canal only produces around 33% of the wastewater discharges within the Tagus Basin.
“There are discharges that do not go through treatment plants,” recalled Alodia Pérez, a representative from Más Madrid in the aforementioned commission, which is why a portion of the waste thrown into the toilet ends up on the banks of the rivers. The parliamentarian referred to a “disastrous” situation in the rivers of the Community such as the Jarama and Henares as they pass through San Fernando de Henares, and unfortunately they are images that are repeated in the Manzanares as they pass through Rivas Vaciamadrid.
The administrations are determined to tackle this problem that grows and grows. That is why, in recent years, another new line of work has been added to the investments in the facilities and the awareness campaigns aimed at the population within the Spanish Association of Water Supply and Sanitation (AEAS), in which they are also wipes manufacturers involved.
Labeling changes
Since the origin of the problem is clearly the dumping of waste into the toilet when this should be avoided at all costs, we want to act on it. The current objective is to ensure that the packaging of the products that citizens most frequently flush down the toilet indicates correctly and unequivocally where they should be deposited after use, a place that is in no case the toilet. Canal led the working group whose effort materialized in January 2019 with the approval of the standard that would establish the acceptance criteria for toilet-disposable products, the public company highlights.
“Establishes the requirements that allow identifying which products whether or not they are biodegradable and disintegrable and, consequently, whether or not they can be flushed down the toilet,” they explain from the company that depends on the Department of the Environment. “Only wet toilet paper that exceeds the requirements of this standard may be labeled as ‘flushable down the toilet.” , they add to emphasize that for the moment, and unfortunately, it is not mandatory.
