Barcelona collects the rubbish of some 1.6 million residents who produce around 1.35 kilos per person per day, and it does so with five systems at once. The practical difference between them is not the colour of the bin, it is the hour. A flat on the pneumatic network can take the bag down at any hour of the day, because the chute feeds an underground pipe. A street with manual collection only accepts it inside a set slot. With door-to-door, the bag goes outside your door on the day the calendar sets. Furniture has its own day per street, 20.00 to 22.00 and free. And there is a fee of 2,25 euros to 4,25 euros a month that you will never see as a separate bill.
What time can you put rubbish out in Barcelona? Pneumatic chutes take it at any hour, because they feed underground pipes. Manual collection only inside its slot, and door-to-door on the day the neighbourhood calendar sets. Furniture goes outside your door from 20.00 to 22.00, free, on the day assigned to your street.
Which system your street has
| System | When you can go down |
|---|---|
| Pneumatic chutes | Any hour of the day |
| Street containers | A bin within 100 metres |
| Manual collection | Inside the drop-off slot only |
| Door-to-door | On the calendar day, at your door |
| Mobile platforms | Only while the platform is there |
The chutes are the best deal in the city and the least known. They sit in the street, in entrance halls or on landings, and they have no closing time. They only take food waste and general waste, so packaging, paper and glass still go to the nearest street container.
They serve the Raval and Santa Caterina i la Ribera, Gràcia Nova, la Salut and el Farró, the Bon Pastor, and la Vila Olímpica, Diagonal Mar, el Besòs i el Maresme and Provençals del Poblenou. If you are flat hunting, it is worth asking.
Manual collection is the opposite, and it exists where bins do not fit: the Gòtic and Sant Pere, the Quadrat d’Or in the Eixample, and the Diagonal between Bailèn and Francesc Macià, that last stretch for general waste only. The restricted hour has an upside you feel in summer, which is that the bin is not full all day.
Door-to-door runs in Sarrià and Sant Andreu de Palomar, with Horta and Sant Antoni announced. Mobile platforms exist in one neighbourhood only, the Bon Pastor, between Foc Follet, Enric Sanchis, Sant Adrià and la Formiga streets.
When each service will take it
Three of these have a hard edge. Furniture is a two-hour window and the tightest of the lot. Shop cardboard is folded flat against the shopfront from 21.00 to 22.00 and must not go in the residential blue bin. Clothing is collected from your flat in four slots, from 9.00 to 11.30, 11.30 to 14.00, 15.00 to 17.00 and 17.00 to 19.00.
The clothing round is the one nobody uses. It is free, you book it on 010, and two social enterprises, Formació i Treball and Solidança, do the collecting. They ask for a minimum of 5 bin bags or 3 industrial bags, and with certified reduced mobility that drops to 2 bags or 1 industrial. Below the minimum, there are 50 Roba Amiga containers around the city, and clothes go in clean, folded and inside a closed bag.
Which bin, and the four mistakes that cost money
| Bin | The usual mistake |
|---|---|
| Yellow | Drinks cartons go here, not in the blue |
| Blue | A napkin greasy with oil goes in the brown |
| Green | Broken glasses, mirrors and bulbs are not allowed |
| Grey | Only what no separate stream accepts |
Glass catches the most people. The green bin is for jars and bottles with no lids or caps, and it excludes broken drinking glasses, flat glass, mirrors, ceramics, plates, bulbs and fluorescent tubes. All of that goes to a green point.
Dirty paper works the other way round from how it looks. A napkin or a sheet of kitchen roll stained with oil does not go in the blue bin, it goes in the brown one with the food waste. And a drinks carton is packaging, not paper, so it goes in the yellow bin along with aluminium foil.
Leaving the bag beside a full container, or beside a pneumatic chute, is a listed offence with its own article number, like the rest of what the street fines cover.
What no container takes
| What it is | Where it goes | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Furniture and junk | Your doorway, 20.00 to 22.00 | Free |
| Large volume of furniture | Home collection | Paid |
| Building rubble | Approved sack | Paid |
| Old clothes | Home round or container | Free |
| Fridge or air conditioner | Green point | Free |
| Asbestos cement | Vall d’Hebron green point | Free |
Every street in Barcelona has an assigned day for furniture, the service is free and there is nothing to book: you leave it outside your own front door between 20.00 and 22.00.
That window is worth a thought if you have just moved here, because dinner is rarely served before 21.00 here and the slot closes while you are still at the table. The day for your street is on the 010 line or the free civility line 900 226 226, and the full detail is in the furniture collection.
Two hill neighbourhoods work differently and this is where newcomers get caught. In Vallvidrera, Font del Mont and Tibidabo you have to phone first on 900 226 226 and put the furniture out on Mondays, 20.00 to 22.00. In El Rectoret, Mas Sauró and Mas Guimbau you also phone, and you put it out on Tuesdays from 20.00; the truck comes the next day and only takes what was phoned in. A sofa left there without a call is just a sofa in the street.
Rubble goes in an approved sack printed with the company’s name and phone number, has to be removed within 24 hours if it is not inside a closed site, and must leave one metre of pavement for pedestrians. And asbestos cement has a single destination in the whole city, the Vall d’Hebron green point, on 934 280 496.
What to do with a dead pigeon on your balcony
Barcelona runs a refrigerated collection service for dead animals, domestic and wild, and the price depends entirely on where the body is. Most people meet it for the first time with a pigeon.
| Where it is | What it costs |
|---|---|
| Public street | Free |
| Balcony or terrace | Public price by weight |
| Inner courtyard or light well | Public price by weight |
| Veterinary clinic | Public price, mornings only |
On a public street it is free: you report the spot on 010, through the council’s virtual office or the Barcelona a la butxaca app. The moment the body is on a balcony, a terrace, an inner courtyard or a light well, it becomes a home collection and the public price applies by weight, even if the animal was never yours. A pigeon that died on your terrace is billed like a pet.
Two conditions worth knowing before you call. Collection happens within two hours of the request, inside service hours, which run 07.00 to 14.00 and 15.00 to 22.00 on weekdays and 08.00 to 14.40 and 15.00 to 22.00 on public holidays. And the crew will not climb roofs, light wells, cornices, ladders, baskets or cranes, so if the body is somewhere awkward, it stays there. Payment is by credit card.
If the animal was your pet, the registration side of it is in the pet census.
Where garden waste goes if you live up the hill
Vallvidrera, el Tibidabo and les Planes have a free service that the rest of the city does not: pruning waste collected from the door by the social enterprise Engrunes.
The condition is oddly specific and it is where requests fail. You need to own a reusable big bag of 0.75 to 1 cubic metre, bought at any hardware shop or builders’ merchant, and the round takes a maximum of three bags per home. You book it on 010 giving your name, address, phone and how many bags.
It only takes medium and large garden waste, meaning branches, trunks and large volumes of grass and leaf litter. Small twigs, dry plants and a bit of leaf litter go in the brown food-waste bin, which is the part people get wrong. Everything collected is composted, and community composting yields about 30 kilos of compost from every 100 kilos of organic waste.
How much the rubbish fee is, and where it turns up
The household fee is 27 to 51 euros a year, or 2,25 to 4,25 euros a month, and it never arrives as its own bill: it is spread across your water invoices, two-monthly or three-monthly. The band comes from the water consumption of the flat, not from how much rubbish you put out, and it has been charged since 1 July 2020.
The part you can act on is the green point user card. Visits cut the fee progressively, from 1 % for two a year up to 14 % for fifteen or more, and there is a temporary 20 % for 40 annual uses of the food-waste stream where individual collection has arrived.
Fee queries do not go to 010. They go to the taxpayer office on 93 217 55 10, to trdbcn@siresa.cat, or in person by appointment at calle de la Pau, 3-5, in Sant Adrià de Besòs. And do not confuse it with the TMTR, which the metropolitan authority charges separately for treatment in its ecoparks.
What to do in your first week
- Find out your system once. If it is pneumatic, stop thinking about the hour. If it is manual or door-to-door, write down the slot and the day.
- Get the green point card. Two visits a year already cut the bill, and fifteen reach the 14 % ceiling.
- Look up your street’s furniture day before you buy anything that comes in a box.
- Save two numbers. 010 for everything, and 900 226 226 for furniture and street incidents.
The rest of the neighbourly rulebook sits in the noise rules, and if you are settling in, the padrón and the market hours are the other two things worth reading in week one. And the tap water is safe to drink here, so the bottle habit is worth dropping: the map of free drinking fountains covers the whole city.
Check your street’s system, and the hour stops being a problem.
Frequently asked questions about rubbish in Barcelona
What time can I put my rubbish out in Barcelona?
It depends on the system your street has, not on a citywide rule. Pneumatic chutes take waste at any hour of the day. Manual collection, used in the Gòtic and along the Quadrat d’Or, restricts the drop-off slot, and with door-to-door the bag goes outside your door on the day the calendar sets.
How do I get rid of a sofa or a mattress?
Leave it outside your own front door between 20.00 and 22.00 on the day assigned to your street. It is free, no booking is needed, and the day is on the 010 line or the free civility line 900 226 226. Rubble and bathroom fittings from building work are not taken.
How much is the rubbish fee and where does it appear?
Between 27 and 51 euros a year, which is 2,25 to 4,25 euros a month, and it is billed with your water, spread over the two or three-monthly invoices. The band depends on the water consumption of the flat, not on how much rubbish you produce.
Who removes a dead pigeon from a balcony in Barcelona?
The council collects dead animals, free on public streets if you report the spot on 010. On a balcony, a light well or an inner courtyard it becomes a home collection and the public price applies by weight, even if the animal was not yours.
Can I get old clothes collected from home?
Yes, free, by calling 010. Formació i Treball and Solidança do the round in slots from 9.00 to 14.00 and 15.00 to 19.00, and they ask for the equivalent of 5 bin bags or 3 industrial ones. With certified reduced mobility the minimum drops to 2 bags.
Collection hours, service conditions and fee reductions published by Barcelona City Council on its cleaning and waste portal.