El Solsonès reserves textile and footwear waste for special employment centers

The Plenary of the Solsonès County Council has approved reserving the right to participate in the award procedures for two county contracts for special employment centers of social initiative and integration enterprises. These concern the service for the selective collection, transport, and management of textile waste and used cooking oils in the county, on one hand, and the maintenance service for non-paved municipal roads, on the other. The agreement was adopted unanimously in the plenary session on September 17, 2026, and is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Lleida no. 199, of October 19, 2026 (reference BOP-2026_0_199_8533, pp. 1-3).

The decision was made upon the proposal of the corporation’s president, M. Claustre Sunyer Cantons, and with the favorable vote of all members present. The published agreement consists of four points: approving the reservation, making it effective through the corresponding bidding procedure—either with total reservation of the contract or by division into lots—requiring that the bidding announcement explicitly include the reservation, and establishing that the agreement takes effect from the date of its adoption, without prejudice to the official publication. The text is dated Solsona, October 8, 2026, and the electronic signature is dated October 9.

A reservation supported by the contracts law and waste regulations

The County Council bases the measure on the fourth additional provision of Law 9/2017, of November 8, on public sector contracts, which empowers the competent body of the local entity to set minimum reservation percentages for the right to participate in certain contracts or lots for special employment centers of social initiative and integration enterprises. The regulation requires these centers and enterprises to have a percentage of workers with disabilities or in a situation of social exclusion of at least 30%.

The municipal report also invokes the nineteenth additional provision of Law 7/2022, of April 8, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, which mandates reserving at least 50% of the award amount for integration enterprises and special social initiative work centers in the management of textile, furniture, and other appliance fractions. According to the document, the reservation of the textile waste and used cooking oil service complies with this obligation and the objective of socially sustainable procurement.

Furthermore, the text recalls two practical effects of the qualification as reserved:

• It is not appropriate to require the definitive guarantee of article 107 of the LCSP, unless the contracting authority considers it necessary for exceptional reasons and justifies it in the file.
• If no admissible offer is submitted and the contract is declared void, a new announcement will be published with a submission period of the same duration as the initial one, in which it will no longer be required to have the status of a special employment center or an integration enterprise.

Maintenance of non-paved roads with supramunicipal vocation

The second reserved contract is for the maintenance of municipal non-paved roads, which the Council proposes from a supramunicipal perspective to group and coordinate the actions of the municipalities that adhere to it and optimize its planning and execution. The planned tasks correspond to those eligible for subsidies in the annual calls of the Generalitat de Catalunya for mountain regions and Aran, and include:

• Clearing and cleaning of vegetation that hinders passage.
• Removal of obstacles and materials.
• Cleaning and maintenance of ditches and drainage elements.
• Conditioning of the road platform.
• Other conservation works necessary to keep it in adequate conditions for use.

Only special centers and integration enterprises

The reservation limits participation to social initiative special employment centers and integration enterprises, such that only these two types of entities can be admitted or awarded the contract. The document underlines that, by qualifying a contract as reserved, the administration excludes other types of entities and guarantees an immediate benefit in the employment of people with disabilities or in socially disadvantaged situations. It also specifies that the reservation can be projected onto any contractual type of the LCSP, including open, restricted, simplified or negotiated procedures, competitive dialogues, innovation partnerships, framework agreements and minor contracts.

With this agreement, the Consell Comarcal del Solsonès turns public procurement into a tool for labor integration in a mountain territory where waste collection and road conservation services are particularly sensitive due to the dispersion of the nuclei. The measure arrives when state waste regulations already oblige the reservation of half the amount in the management of the textile fraction, and extends it to a road maintenance service that directly affects the mobility and accessibility of the adhering municipalities.

Fuente: Butlletí Oficial de la Província de Lleida, núm. 199, 19 d’octubre de 2026, Administració Local - Consells Comarcals, pàg. 1-3 (referència oficial: BOP-2026_0_199_8533).