SADECO – Sanitation Córdoba - is a public company established in 1986 by the Municipality of Cordoba. This company is in charge, among other things, of waste management and street cleaning in the municipal territory. It also provides pest and animal control and is responsible for cleaning public primary schools and municipal buildings.
Since 1994, SADECO has been a pioneer in Spain in terms of selective waste collection (especially the organic fraction), as well as in its use of new technology for waste collection and cleaning.
For more than 20 years, SADECO has participated in European projects aimed at better waste management and has always counted on the support of many stakeholders.
In 2011, SADECO took another step towards international collaboration in order to share with the highest number of similar companies its know-how and concerns, and to devise the best solutions for the waste management of historical town centres. The SMOT project (Sustainable Mediterranean Old Towns), part of the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Border initiative led by SADECO, does just this. SADECO has very recently been awarded a second European project: COCOON (Consortium for a Coherent European Landfill Management Strategy).
The specificities of this world heritage city, which is very large in size, has many historical monuments, and preserves remains of the Visigoth, Roman, Arabic and Christian eras, make it necessary for a specific organisation with suitable means and personnel capable of integrating the surroundings, protecting the heritage and supporting the business generated by tourism, an essential source of financial development in Cordoba.
To this end, since 1995 SADECO has developed several solutions to integrate the waste collection system, with the aim of minimizing the impact of collection in its historical old town.
Worthy of mention is the signing of voluntary agreements with the main waste producers in the old town to remove containers from the streets; in addition SADECO provides aesthetic solutions (e.g. bin covers), installs underground containers and has implemented a brand-new solution – eco-points – a storage space for containers.
With the aim of minimizing waste production, SADECO makes a constant effort to raise citizen awareness, working with different citizen groups and stakeholders in the city (pupils, neighbourhood associations, professional groups, ecologists, etc.).
As a result, SADECO reached 50.16% recycling of municipal waste in the second semester of 2015. In this respect, Cordoba goes beyond the objectives of the EU Waste Framework Directive and the Spanish laws on waste management.
For more information: www.sadeco.es
