New Year, new regulations

They say that round numbers tend to be a landmark for whatever it may be.

In the year 2000, all computers on earth were supposed to come to halt, in the stock exchange when a stock reaches a value with a round number, whether downwards or upwards, there is sudden influx of sell and buy orders because most people decide to sell or buy on a round number. Well, the same occurs with legislation.

In 2020 new environmental and sustainability legal regulations come into effect that will affect everything from household energy consumption to traffic in main cities.

Many things will work differently from 2020, from plastic bags and fossil fuels, to damp toilet paper, makeup remover wipes or incentives for using renewable energy in the home. In this article, I will inform you of what novelties are to come, what they consist of and what their effect on everyday life will be.

End of bags formed by fragmental materials

The Spanish Royal Decree 293/2018, known as the plastic bag reduction decree, continues to make progress. It has served to establish the ban, since 2018, of free plastic bags in shops, with the exception of very light bags (customary for weighing fruit and vegetables) and those that are more than 50 microns thick and composed of more than 70% recycled plastic.

Since January 1, bags made from fragmental materials cannot be used (with additives that transform into micro plastics and are especially harmful to the environment). It was also established that all those exceeding 50 microns in thickness must be made from at least 50% recycled elements.

The regulations also established that from 2021 bags less than 50 microns thick must all be compostable (with industrial composting they degrade biologically, producing carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds and biomass at the same speed as other organic matter).

2020 a decisive year

2020 is an important year for air quality in Barcelona. The city council will establish a low emissions area and restrict car traffic (ZBE) in the city. An ambitious plan that covers 97 square kilometres and includes the municipalities of Barcelona - except the Franca Industrial zone, Vallvidrera, Tibidabo and Les Planes - L'Hospitalet de Llobregat and its bordering areas. From January 1, from 07.00 to 20.00, Monday to Friday, no car or van without the necessary environmental label (in effect since April 2019) can access this area. Medical, funeral, civil protection, fire, police and vehicles for persons with reduced mobility are exempt from this standard.

In the case of Madrid, the city council is continuing with the 2018 regulation on authorised vehicles in the taxi fleet, encouraging the acquisition of low-pollution cars. As of January 1, only cars with ECO, ZERO and diesel Euro 6 labels for models after December 14, 2012 can be in service.

Wet wipes and wet toilet paper

The intensification of the use of wet wipes (makeup removers or hygienic tissues) and their accumulation in drains has caused a serious environmental problem. The accumulation of hundreds of metres of waste, weighing several tons, in the sewage systems, has caused economic bleeding in town hall coffers and had an impact on water purification systems in all cities of the world.

The Spanish national association of perfumery and cosmetics (Stanpa) introduced in 2019, within its code of good practice, the regulation UNE 149002, pioneered in the EU, which sees a green circle on the packaging of wipes and wet toilet paper that can be disposed of in the toilet, and with a red badge those that must be thrown in the rubbish bin. To obtain the green logo the materials must pass five different laboratory tests relating to the speed and quality of their biodegradation in the WC. The association has committed to integrate this labelling before September.

Energy savings at home

Something that directly affects our profession, the European Union (EU) has adopted a strategy aimed at implementing sustainability in the construction sector in the last decade. Already detailed in the considerations of Directive 2010/31, the EU stated that the construction of homes in the European Union accounts for 40% of energy consumption.

For this reason, on December 31, 2020 new amendments to our beloved technical building code (CTE), effective for public buildings since 2018, will come into force. This regulation includes a basic energy saving document (DB-HE) that seeks to reduce energy consumption and incorporate green energy in new homes and renovations. The CTE supposes the update of the definition of ‘building with consumption of almost nil energy’, with the establishment of a minimum amount of renewable energy for the production of hot water, the reduction of non-renewable energies by 60% for singlefamily homes in the areas most adversely affected in winter.

In addition, the code is open to other sources of sustainable energy, not only thermal or photovoltaic solar. These measures will not only help our planet, but also our pockets. The sector estimates indicate that electricity and water bills will decrease in this type of property by between 60% and 75%.

Euro 6d emissions for cars and vans

This is framed within the European RDE (Real Driving Emissions) standard and affects only the manufacture of light vehicles, such as cars and vans. Effective from January 1, it is mandatory for types M, N1 and Class I, and reduces diesel and petrol emissions from 126mg/km and 168mg/km established in the previous standard (Euro 6d TEMP EVAP ISC, effective since September 2019 as a transition measure) to 60mg/km (petrol) and 80mg/km (diesel).

The Spanish association of automobile and truck manufacturers (ANFAC) have pointed out that they are ‘the most demanding emission regulations in the world,’ and comment that only Europe has implemented such controls.