Government of Cantabria and Cabuérniga agree on waste collection

The Official Gazette of Cantabria publishes this Monday, 17 August 2026, in issue 157, a resolution of the General Secretariat of Public Works, Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment ordering the publication of the agreement between the Administration of the Autonomous Community of Cantabria and the municipality of Cabuérniga for the provision of municipal waste collection and transport services. The agreement, identified by code CVE-2026-6528, was signed in Santander on 12 August 2026 by the Secretary General Ana Belén Ruiz San Millán.

The agreement was signed by the Regional Minister for Public Works, Housing, Territorial Planning and Environment, Roberto Media Sainz, on behalf of the Government of Cantabria and with the prior authorisation of the Governing Council of 25 June 2026, and by the Mayor-President of Cabuérniga, María Rosa Fernández Iglesias, empowered to sign by plenary agreement of 25 May 2026.

The town council does not have the necessary means to adequately provide the service, so it requests regional collaboration relying on Law 8/1993, of 18 November, on the Urban Waste Management Plan of Cantabria, which obliges the regional government to support local entities that cannot take on collection and transport — the so-called ’low-level collection’ services — as well as on the basic regulations on local government (Law 7/1985, of 2 April, and Law 7/2022, of 8 April, on waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy). The provision is entrusted to MARE (Medio Ambiente, Agua, Residuos y Energía de Cantabria, S.A., M.P.), a public company attached to the department with the status of an in-house public sector entity.

Services included in the agreement

The agreement is part of the collaboration framework opened by the agreement signed on 27 March 2025 between the Government of Cantabria and the Federation of Municipalities of Cantabria, and its Annex I specifies the services to which the municipality adheres:

• Collection of the residual waste fraction and transport to a transfer or final treatment plant: 10,102 annual kerbside container empties, at 46 collection points with 103 containers of 800 litres and one of 240 litres.
• Separate collection of light packaging and paper-cardboard (663 empties).
• Separate collection of bulky waste (26 annual services).
• Home composting (74 participants).
• Separate collection of agricultural plastic waste (RPUA): 4 loading services, 640.6 kilometres of transport and 10 tonnes treated.
• Separate collection of textile waste (26 empties) and used cooking oil (6 empties).

Cost of the service and public prices

Annex I estimates the total cost at 59,451.40 euros per year, of which 53,565.49 euros correspond to services excluding VAT and 5,885.91 euros to 10% VAT. The main budget item is the residual waste fraction, set at 57,193.38 euros including taxes, at a rate of 5.1469 euros per emptying. In return, the city council shall pay the public prices set by the Government of Cantabria in accordance with Decree 86/2013, of 26 December, and Order FOM/16/2025, of 5 August, which sets the current amounts for the household waste collection and transport service. The agreement also includes public awareness campaigns carried out by the regional ministry through MARE.

Validity, monitoring and termination

• Initial duration of four years, extendable by unanimous agreement of the parties for up to four additional years.
• Effectiveness conditional upon its publication in the Official Gazette of Cantabria and registration in the Autonomic Electronic Register of Agreements within fifteen days.
• A Monitoring Committee, made up of three representatives from each party, shall resolve disagreements and monitor compliance with the agreement.
• Disputes shall be subject to the administrative contentious jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice of Cantabria.

The accession of Cabuérniga guarantees the continuity of an essential environmental management service that the municipality cannot sustain with its own resources. The agreement consolidates the model of supramunicipal collaboration promoted by the Government of Cantabria to ensure the separate collection and recovery of waste in small municipalities, within the framework of the circular economy objectives of Law 7/2022, of 8 April.

Source: Official Gazette of Cantabria, No. 157, 17 August 2026, section 7.5 “Miscellaneous”, p. 37552 (official reference: CVE-2026-6528).