In a few years, the first public plant for the management and recycling of domestic textile waste in Galicia will come into operation. It will be located in the facilities available to Sociedade Galega do Medio Ambiente (Sogama) in Cerceda and, in a first phase, will have the capacity to process 3,000 tons of waste per year. A measure which, as the president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, explained during the press conference after the Governing Council, is part of the 2024-2030 strategic plan of the entity, which also highlights another vital issue on the path to a more sustainable industry: traceability. In this way, the Community is preparing to respond to the needs arising from the sectoral regulations in force, through which municipalities will have to implement, from January, the differentiated collection of this waste.
In recent years, the word after the president. Municipal councils will have to apply from January 1, 2025 the national law on waste and contaminated soil, which requires sorting of this waste at source and prohibits the destruction of surplus. An obligation, indicated the minister, that the Administration wants to transform into an opportunity.
To this end, the Council has given the green light to allocate 14 million euros for the construction of this first public power plant – the majority coming from European funds through the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism–, the call for tenders for which will be launched before the end of the year with the aim of putting it into service in 2026. It will be located in the Sogama Environmental Complex, in Cercedaand initially, Vázquez explained, it will have the capacity to manage 3,000 tons of waste, which could be expanded to 24,000 per year. “To give you an idea,” said the branch manager, “currently, 7 percent of textile waste arrives in the black bag – the one that is placed in the generic container – at Sogama, i.e. about 70,000 tonnes,” and only 10.2 percent is collected separately.
Once in service, its main function will be to prepare the recycling of this waste, both that of the containers located in the streets and that of social economy companies such as Cáritas or Humana. The future factory, as Vázquez indicated, is part of the framework strategic project of the Xunta to promote a textile center or centera booming sector which, in the coming years, is expected – as provided by law – to make a strong commitment to recycling, also foreseeing an increase in demand for textile fibers made from recycled materials.
At the same time, it is one of the most remarkable initiatives of the Sogama Strategic Plan 2024-2030to move forward in the modernization and rationalization of the service. In addition to the creation of this factory, which will be the first of its kind in the Community, this line of action also includes the development of a data management and documentation platform focused on waste traceability, called TRACEand, later, the launch of the Customer Portal, which will allow two-way communication between Sogama and the 295 municipalities it serves.
