Sorting your food waste in Alicante could now save you money, with residents able to use their mobile phones to record deposits and qualify for a discount on the city’s rubbish collection charge.
The Tú Haces Alicante (You Make Alicante) app has now passed 20,000 registered users and combines several council waste services in one place.
As well as opening the city’s locked brown organic waste containers, residents can report cleaning problems, request collections of unwanted household items and follow the progress of their reports.
But for households watching their bills, the potential 20% reduction in the rubbish charge could be the feature worth knowing about.
How do you get the 20% discount?
Alicante links reductions in its rubbish collection charge to how regularly households use the brown organic waste containers.
To qualify for the maximum 20% reduction, a household needs to make at least four recorded organic waste deposits per month during ten months of the year.
That works out at a minimum of 40 qualifying deposits during the year.
There is an important restriction: the system counts a maximum of one deposit per day.
The deposits you make during one year determine the reduction applied to the rubbish charge for the following year.
Your phone can open the brown bins
Alicante’s organic waste containers have electronic locks.
Residents can open them using the physical Tú Haces Alicante card or the mobile app, which means you do not necessarily need to carry the card each time you take out your food waste.
The system records each organic waste deposit and links it to the corresponding property. That record then determines whether the household qualifies for a reduction in the following year’s charge.
The idea is to encourage households to separate more organic waste at home rather than putting everything into the grey general waste container destined for landfill.
How to get the Tú Haces Alicante app
The app is free and available for both Android and iPhone.
Android users can find it through Google Play, while iPhone users can download it from Apple’s App Store.
When registering and linking the app to your home, you may need your DNI or NIE and the identification number from your rubbish charge bill.
Once everything is connected, you can use your phone to open the organic waste container and start recording qualifying deposits.
Report overflowing bins and request collections
The app is not only about the brown bins.
Alicante introduced a new cleaning and waste reporting service through the app in August, and more than 300 users have already used it.
Residents can report problems they spot in public areas and then check how their report is progressing.
The same system allows users to request the collection of enseres, or bulky household items, rather than leaving furniture and other large objects beside containers.
With more than 20,000 registered users, the app has become an increasingly important link between residents and Alicante’s street cleaning and waste collection services.
And if you already separate your food waste, making sure those brown-bin deposits are recorded could make a noticeable difference to next year’s bill.
Bridging the Gap’s recap
- More than 20,000 people have registered with the Tú Haces Alicante app.
- The app can open Alicante’s electronically locked brown organic waste containers.
- Regular use of the organic waste bins can qualify households for a rubbish charge reduction of up to 20%.
- The maximum reduction requires at least four qualifying deposits per month during ten months of the year.
- You therefore need at least 40 recorded deposits during the year.
- Only one deposit per day counts towards the reduction.
- Deposits made this year determine the reduction on the following year’s charge.
- The app also lets residents report cleaning problems and request collections of bulky household items.
