The abrupt rise of the garbage rate that has exploded throughout Spain is not the result of a improvised decision of each town hall, but rather of the rush to have arrived at the last minute. Namely: of the obligatory application of Law 7/2022 (transposition of European directives) which orders that the waste service should no longer be partially financed by general taxes and be paid 100% by a specific rate based on the “polluter pays” principle, eliminating the structural deficit that many municipalities had been carrying.
What has happened? That the “garbage” is more noticeable in some places than others.
The normative origin. The norm established a maximum period until April to incorporate it into ordinances, which has meant that municipalities that delayed its application have communicated the charge practically at once, with increases that in some cases double or triple previous receipts and are already reflected in the CPI with an increase 30% year-on-year in the cost of the service, despite the fact that not all municipalities have implemented it yet, which anticipates additional increases when the deployment is full.
In other words, curves are coming.
Cangas de Morrazo as epicenter. As it is, the first public implosion has happened in Cangasin Pontevedra, where neighborhood anger became an episode of public order with councilors escorted by the Civil Guard and throwing objects after approving an ordinance that in bars went from 107 to 1,236 euros and in homes it practically doubled receipts, accumulating more than 8,000 signatures against an increase perceived as abrupt, without a transitional phase or prior dialogue.
Hoteliers allege unviability when passing bills from 1,400 to more than 3,000 euroswhile regretting that the process was carried out without calling affected actors before approval, which has turned a legal requirement into a political trigger, in a framework where the service had 17 years without updating rates and was deficient in more than two million per year, compensated via general taxes that can no longer be used for this purpose.
The inequalities. The law requires a rate, but does not dictate how to calculate itwhich has generated a mosaic of municipal models with disparate criteria: cadastral value, water consumption, number of registereduse of the premises, area or even flat rate per home. This diversity implies that citizens of adjacent municipalities pay very different amounts for an equivalent service, something already warned by the FEMP and by Treasury inspectors as a sure source of massive litigation.
The recent annulment by the TSJ of Castilla y León, an ordinance from León opens a path that businesses, schools and sectors especially hit with receipts are already exploring up to 30,000 euros. Experts warn that the reference to the cadastral value may constitute a vice of illegality by disconnecting from the actual generation of waste and functioning de facto as an improper surcharge of the IBIwhich could reproduce a similar scenario to the municipal capital gains: imposed instrument, politically supported, challenged in a cascade and finally revoked, with an obligation to return it to whoever has resorted to it within the deadline.
Europe: obligation and margin. Political tension is fueled by a deliberate misunderstanding: Brussels demands compliance with recycling, reuse and circular economy goals, but it does not force that the instrument is a rate nor does it mark the calculation formula. In fact, it was the Spanish legislator who chose this path and transferred the technical and political responsibility for executing it to the city councils, without defining a uniform standard cost methodology or setting national equity criteria.
The result is a double cross reproach: The city councils accuse the Government of imposing an obligation without an application manual and the Government points to Europe to cover a decision of internal design with inevitability, while the citizen perceives that they are beginning to pay directly for a service that already existed and whose cost structure is not explained precisely, which erodes the social acceptance of the tax.
Economic effect. The rate not only makes household and business bills more expensive, but reorder incentives: If the deficit can no longer be covered by taxes and must appear on the invoice, the system penalizes waste volumetrics and rewards separation and reduction practices where ordinances have introduced bonuses linked to the use of brown containers, composting, door-to-door or clean points.
However, and very importantly, in large cities many current models do not reward individual behavior, proxy rules apply (cadastral, surface, neighborhood) and generate equal payment for neighbors with radically different behaviors, something criticized from environmentalism for diluting the environmental purpose of the norm. Meanwhile, the jump 30% in CPI and business cases with receipts multiplied by three have produced not only social irritation but fear of a massive wave of resources, in a context in which city councils acknowledge that they are already preparing legal defense anticipating that the rate could become a new fiscal front with a path to court.
Conclusion: a sinvivir. The crisis of the “garbage” It is not born in the amount but in the combination of inexcusable legal obligation, abrupt transfer to the taxpayer without cushioning, disparate heterogeneity between municipalities, poor communication, absence of national guidance and a highly fragile legal system that opens the door to serial litigation.
Cangas has been the first burst visible of a phenomenon that is structural: Spain has made it a norm to finance waste with taxes pass them on in full as a rateand this simultaneous redesign without homogeneity or pedagogy has coincided with inflationary cycles, accumulated business burdens and distrust of administrations, producing a perfect storm that mixes environmental compliance, fiscal shock and perceived legitimacy.
Image | Daniel Capilla
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