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Facilities for non-hazardous waste treatment

  • Sorting plants: 3 sorting facilities are available for recovery of light packaging (10,000 t per year and working shift), paper and cardboard (25,000 t/year&shift), and WEEE (3,000 t/y&shift), as well as an area for glass storage (20,000 t/y&shift). The recovered materials are delivered to final recyclers of plastics (HDPE, LDPE, PET, etc.), scrap (Fe, Al), brik, cardboard, paper, glass, and electrical equipment. Currently, discarded materials are landfilled but will be mostly recovered by 2017 for RDF production.
  • Anaerobic digestion: this facility has been designed for treatment of biowaste collected separately (30,000 t/y), but is able to process sewage sludge, producing biogas and compost. It is expected to increase its capacity up to 90,000 t/y by 2020. More info
  • Construction and demolition waste recycling: up to 150,000 tonnes per year and working shift can be treated, recovering mainly graded aggregates, but also scrap, plastic and wood. Currently, discarded materials are landfilled. The total capacity of the inert landfill is 6 million m3.
  • Composting: two separated processes are focused on compost production from 20,000 t/year and shift of green waste and manure (eco-labelled compost) as well as 20,000 t/y of high quality sewage sludge (sewage compost). The production of compost is around 4,000 t/y for each type but will be increased in the coming years when the treatment capacity of sewage sludge reaches 40,000 t/y.   
  • Landfill: the Central Landfill of Asturias started in 1985 with a capacity of 10,5 million m3 which was increased in 2005 (2,1 million m3) and 2010 (3,5 million m3). The discharge of municipal mixed waste will remain until 2020. The landfill is equipped with a degasification system which allows recovery of 35 million m3 biogas for electricity generation (45 GWh/year) in 10 engines. Around 200,000 m3 leachate are treated by Biomembrat process. The seagulls trying to get food from the landfill are driven away with falconry techniques.

Facilities for hazardous waste treatment

  • HW landfill: the landfill for hazardous waste (HW), in operation since 1992, has a capacity of 600,000 m3.
  • Physic-chemical process: this facility, with a capacity of 20,000 t/y, neutralise both acid and alkaline waste from the industry. The sludge produced after press filtration, containing solids, insoluble hydroxides of heavy metals (mainly Zn, Fe and Cr), calcium hydroxide, etc. is discharged in the HW landfill.
  • Solidification/Stabilisation: some industrial waste are solidified and/or stabilised in this facility (20,000 t/y) by adding proper reagents prior to discharge in the HW landfill.
  • Oil and oil emulsions: industrial oil-based waste are analysed to prevent PCB discharges. If the water content is greater than 10%, it is pre-treated by warming up to 80ºC and subsequent decantation (Marpol process, 10,000 t/y) to separate oil from water and sludge. Recovered oil (capacity: 6,000 t/y and working shift) is stored and analysed (PCB<50 mg/L, H2O<10%) prior to delivery to specialised recyclers.
  • Incineration of clinical waste: this facility is equiped with two independent lines, a static kiln with a capacity of around 500 kg/h (since 1992) and a rotatory kiln since 2003 (≈1,000 kg/h). Flue gases are purified in dry-way systems by adding NaHCO3 (or calcium hydroxide) and activated carbon and subsequent bag filtration prior to evacuation in the atmosphere. The rotatory kiln line is able to produce electricity in a turbine by using the water vapour produced in a boiler prior to flue gas depuration. This facility is focused on potentially infectious clinical waste, but also is prepared to treat meat and bone meal (MBM) residues, drugs, polluted plastic packages, etc.

Other facilities

  • Recycling Points: more than 30 recycling points are placed throughout Asturias, in which citizens can discharge special waste, such as construction and demolition waste, green waste, WEEE, furniture, etc. COGERSA carry out the collection of these separated waste and attend 13 recycling points.    
  • Transfer stations: 9 transfer stations are operated by COGERSA throughout Asturias for an efficient transportation of municipal waste, 7 of which carry out pressing operations.
  • Visitor centre: 1.000 m2 for dissemination activities of 3R culture.
  • Weighing area: 4 scales in the access control.
  • Laboratory: the laboratory of COGERSA is specialised in analytical control of waste, processes and the surrounding environment of the facilities. Up to 7,000 samples and 17,000 parameters are analysed every year.
  • Maintenance area: for the convenient maintenance of trucks, machinery, vehicles, containers and facilities.


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