Jorge Hinojosa
FOR years campaigners have been calling for Spain to make it a legal obligation to provide free tap water on demand at bars and restaurants.
While the rule was in place in some of Spain’s regions it wasn’t compulsory in all of them. Until now.
On Saturday the new legal requirement was published in Spain’s official gazette, the BOE and came into force across the country on Sunday, April 10.
The law states that bars and restaurants must provide free tap water, a measure that has been brought in with the hope of reducing plastic consumption by cutting down on the sale of single use containers of bottled water.
It is part of a wider move away from plastics with government plans to impose new taxes on one-use plastic products and increased fees for the disposal of waste in landfills.
Angel Fernandez Omar, the director of the Association Economia Circular, welcomed the measure. “This is an important step to put into order how we manage waste in Spain,” he told the Olive Press.
“The taxes will help to make companies think again when they throw waste to landfill, but it has to be expensive enough to make them think of different options,” he added.
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