The Roda de Berà City Council has taken action to combat the uncivil practice known as "garbage tourism". Starting this weekend, the direction of traffic on some streets bordering El Vendrell will be changed to make it harder for residents of that municipality to deposit their waste in Roda's containers.
This practice involves transporting waste to neighboring towns where the traditional system of street containers is still in place, thus avoiding the strict schedules and controls of the door-to-door collection model recently implemented in El Vendrell. This situation has caused a significant increase in garbage in nearby municipalities such as Roda de Berà and Calafell.
In the case of Roda de Berà, daily increases of up to five tons of garbage have been recorded. The mayor, Pere Virgili, has described the situation as a serious problem for the municipality. As a drastic measure, containers are already being removed from streets adjacent to the Francàs del Vendrell area.
Virgili has announced that vehicle access from El Vendrell to Roda will be prohibited during the weekend as a pilot test. This measure has already been communicated to the El Vendrell City Council.
Residents like Glòria Rodríguez have reported that people arrive by car to dump garbage in the street, particularly in the Francàs and Masos de Coma-Ruga urbanization, where door-to-door collection was implemented after Easter.
The mayor of Roda has expressed his bewilderment regarding the implementation of the door-to-door system in municipalities with tourist areas, considering it makes waste management difficult for non-permanent residents.
In Calafell, a worrying increase in garbage originating from El Vendrell has also been detected, and an awareness campaign has been launched with the slogan "Your waste, in your municipality".
