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Although already a success in nearly 100 places across France and Belgium, the Alicante town of Monforte del Cid has become the first in Spain to introduce an environmentally friendly and cost saving means of collecting household waste, with the introduction of the horse and cart.
Fuelled by hay and maybe polo mints, the four-legged, one horsepower driving force of the trucks has already produced a significant saving to the town hall, reducing the bill of 400,000 euro by half, now costing just 200,000 euro.
A statement explained how keeping a diesel garbage truck in an expense of between 5,000 and 7,000 euro each per year, keeping a horse costs between 900 and 1,200 per year. The price of purchasing a truck is around 125,000 euro, with a maximum life expectancy of 10 years, whilst the cost of the horse and cart, or “hipomóvil” to give it the correct name, is less than 6,000 euro with a lifespan of more than 20 years.
An awareness campaign has also been launched advising citizens of the importance of separating waste into groups which can be recycled and organic matter, which also reduces the costs considerably when it comes to managing the collections.
Overall, the town hall say that this “pioneering” initiative is “an appropriate approach which can become a source of new opportunities to improve the quality of the environment, improve the service provided to the residents, save on management and generate new jobs in the town”.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/44371/
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