There are streets in Madrid that are swept every day. In others, cleaning services only arrive once a week. The frequency with which they are cleaned was marked three years ago in the contract that Madrid City Council awarded to five large companies and which will extend until 2027, with a planned expenditure of more than 1.6 billion euros.
The Public Space Cleaning Map shows streets in four color shades, based on their planned service levels. The dark green ones (level 1) are the ones that are cleaned the most. They include manual sweeping and road washing five times a week (three times Monday to Friday, in addition to those on Saturday and Sunday), in addition to daily maintenance sweeping. On the official map, which we present under these lines, these are generally the busiest (Castellana, Fuencarral, Centro district… although others are also included, such as the office area with fewer people, near the Plaza de Castilla).
For roads marked in light blue (level 2), the Town Hall carries out sweeping 3 times a week, from Monday to Sunday, on days when they are not cleaned with water, which must still take place 3 times a week every other day. Maintenance sweeps are also scheduled from Monday to Sunday in the neighborhoods of Centro, Chamberí, Tetuán, Arganzuela, Retiro, Salamanca and Chamartín and three times a week in the rest of the capital.
The pale orange streets (level 3), distributed mainly in the neighborhoods outside the M-30, are only cleaned once a week with water and sweepers travel them every other day. Finally, browns (level 4) record manual sweeping once a week and wet cleaning once a month. What is indicated on the map published below meets the minimum service concessions set by Madrid City Council, which must ensure that the winning companies respect these conditions.
Source: Madrid City Hall
As for the most cleaned neighborhoods, the best cared for are those of Gaztambide (Chamberí), Sol (Centro), Ibiza (Retiro) and Castillejos (Tetuán), according to a compilation made by this newspaper, in which they are also favored to other neighborhoods in the central area such as Lista or Goya (Salamanca), Arapiles (Chamberí) or Cuatro Caminos (Tetuán).
As for the places with the lowest cleaning frequency, the neighborhoods of El Cañaveral (Vicálvaro), Cuatro Vientos (Latina), El Goloso or Fuentelarreina (Fuencarral-El Pardo) stand out at the bottom. San Fermín and Orcasur (Usera) are also on the list.
Regarding cleaning by neighborhood, it seems clear that Centro and Chamberí are the places in the city with the highest cleaning frequency, followed by Ciudad Lineal. Meanwhile, Latina, Barajas and Fuencarral-El Pardo are at the bottom of the list.
Does the population’s income influence whether they do housework more or less weekly? According to the compilation prepared by this newspaper, it does not seem so, since rich neighborhoods like Castellana or Recoletos have the same frequencies as more modest neighborhoods like San Diego, Vallecas or San Cristóbal.
The cleaning contracts were awarded in the summer of 2021 to five large companies – mostly construction companies – but litigation and claims filed by the unawarded companies delayed their entry into force by several months. They cost 1,636,419,788.82 euros (taxes included) over the six years of the contract, a figure which includes a total renewal of the vehicle fleet, with a majority of non-polluting vehicles, some 2,500 additional operators and a new image, with lighter colored uniforms. and the Madrid 360 logo – signature of Almeida’s environmental strategy – printed on clothing and devices.
