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Humana launches selective collection service for used clothing in Leganés
18-11-2024
The Councillor for the Environment and Sustainability of the Leganés City Council, Violeta Bonet, visited this morning the plant for preparing for the reuse of textiles (PxR) of Humana Fundación Pueblo para Pueblo, located in Leganés itself.
The visit is in response to the start of the selective collection service for used clothing in this city by Humana, which has been taking over management since the beginning of the month with the aim of giving a second life to as many garments as possible.
The objective of the social economy entity is to recover 150 tonnes per year in the municipality, which is equivalent to 405,000 items.
Location of the 40 Humana containers in Leganés
Residents have 40 containers located in easily accessible places where they can deposit the textile waste they no longer use (clothes, footwear, accessories and home textiles).
They are located at the top of the railway line that runs through Leganés, in the following districts of the municipality:
- Arroyo Culebro
- Campo de Tiro
- Ensanche de San Nicasio
- Fortuna
- Leganés Norte
- Poza del Agua
- Quinto Centenario
- San Nicasio
- Solagua
- Valdepelayo
These selective collection points are emptied periodically (between once and twice a week) to ensure good service. The recovered garments are transferred to the PxR plant in Polvoranca: operational since 2010 and expanded in 2018, it is the largest centre in Spain dedicated to the management of used textiles.
European Week for Waste Reduction
During the visit, carried out within the framework of the European Week for Waste Reduction, the councillor has learned first-hand about the process of managing textile waste. Violeta Bonet has shown great interest in the creation and maintenance of green jobs thanks to the appropriate management of textiles. The 150 tonnes that are expected to be collected each year in Leganés represent 5 full-time permanent jobs for the Foundation as a whole.
At the same time, she has expressed her concern when reviewing the figures for the generation of textile waste in Spain and those 900,000 tonnes that end up in a landfill each year. 'It is the society in which we live, marked by consumerism. Therefore, it is essential to carry out awareness-raising actions and ensure that the appropriate messages reach the public'.
During the visit, issues such as the need for greater containerisation and the importance of having a professional collection service, in which the maintenance of containers is key, were addressed. Also aspects such as traceability, social economy or waste hierarchy.
Environmental and social purpose of textile waste management
“Selective clothing collection has great potential to guarantee a second life: 63% can be reused and 28% recycled,” said Rafael Mas, director of Projects and External Relations at Humana, who added: “The first objective is always reuse because the most sustainable garment is the one that has already been manufactured and has no additional costs or production impact.
That is why it is important that the clothes we get rid of are deposited in the appropriate container because, unfortunately, almost 90% of textile waste does not end up at the appropriate collection point, but in the trash.”
“This process has an environmental and social purpose, since the funds generated allow the execution of development cooperation projects in southern countries and social actions in Spain,” explained the representative of the entity, “that is why we are very grateful for donations from citizens. Selective waste collection is only successful when two factors are combined: an environmental commitment from the administration and a professional and transparent service from the managing entity.”
Humana has a workforce of 747 workers in Spain, of which 47 are residents of Leganés (42 at the PxR plant and 5 at Humana stores in Madrid).
