Glossary

biorresíduos

Published 3 November 2026, 09:35
biorresíduos (biowaste: food and garden waste)

Food scraps and leftovers from homes, offices, restaurants, canteens, shops and food production, plus grass and branches from gardens and parks. The general waste management regime (RGGR) requires them to be separated at source: from 31 December 2022 for restaurants and producers of more than 25 tonnes of such waste a year, and from 31 December 2023 for everyone else. By the same date, municipal systems were supposed to set up separate collection: bins, and home or community composters.

Where you come across it. The bin area outside your building: a separate bin for food waste, if the municipality has provided one.
Whoever produces the waste must separate it, but the bin for it is provided by the municipality, and not everywhere. The list of bins the municipality must provide near your home is often limited to paper, plastic, metal and glass, with no biowaste: so you have the obligation but nowhere nearby to take it.