Ten minutes before the doors of the Torrejón de Ardoz City Hall opened, during the extraordinary hours that enabled them to answer questions about the rate of litter, dozens of people were already lining up with a folder under their arms. They go to … These municipal utilities must pay the amount and take the opportunity, they were warned, to file a claim if they are not satisfied. There is dissatisfaction among those present, who discuss the ruling among themselves. It is a reflection of the general unrest in other localities in the region and in the rest of the country in the face of this imposition by the central government, which many of them consider chaotic.
“We do not agree on how to raise the rate,” criticize the Torrejoneros, including Godet. The municipal government of the Popular Party set a fixed amount for houses at 117 euros, 180 euros, and 250 euros, depending on their area and cadastral value. They claim that this “does not represent” what they consider to be their consumption, and so they will record their disagreement in a form; But they insist on realizing that this is not an imposition from this council, but rather a “binding rule from above.”
The Torrejon City Council, like others who have included rate changes for next year, knows that the amounts are “higher than desired” and that they have “generated significant expenses for families, companies and small businesses, which are already facing a negative economic situation.” For this reason, it will implement reductions for next year and will consider modifying the model so that next year the number of residents registered in each household will be calculated.
Municipal sources from the Mostoleño City Council, also governed by the Popular Party, criticize the commitment to implement this regulation, which comes from “an unjust law, which turns the town councils into mere collectors of the government of Spain.” The mayor of this municipality, Manuel Bautista, denounced that “the city councils’ imposition of the ‘Sanchez tax’ represents an unprecedented attack on the independence of local administrations.”
In Getafe, the city governed by socialist Sara Hernández, on the contrary, they assert that “there is no problem with the waste rate”: “It is a European commitment that all municipalities in Spain must also adhere to,” municipal sources tell this newspaper. However, the truth is that the number of complaints also runs into the thousands. The Attorney General of Getafe promoted a set of signatures against the tax, in which 7,000 residents have participated so far. In addition, it has made available to the citizens of this municipality a form of resource to file a complaint with this council regarding the “unfair litter rate imposed by Pedro Sanchez and Sara Hernandez.”
In another socialist fiefdom, Alcorcón, they defend that they have chosen “progressive and fair” regulations, with 85% of households paying less than €115 a year. To convince taxpayers of the fairness of their rate, they promoted a campaign to explain it, why and how it is paid. They will also meet with the business community, which has been critical of the tax, to bring about a change in approach. Despite his efforts to convince the tax balance, the city council has so far received 600 emails containing doubts, 120 administrative appeals have already been registered and they serve an average of 70 people a day at the window.
Political battlefield
To date, Leganés is the only municipality that, despite the commitment, has been transplanted. The council headed by Miguel Angel Recuenco (PP) does not intend to implement the litter rate.
Precisely because of the disparity in models, the litter rate has become a new battleground between left and right. The Madrid City Council is an example in the race to raise this political flag. The Popular Government denounces that the tax is national and imposed by the Sánchez government; Fox criticizes the model chosen by the People’s Party and asserts that it could have rebelled. Both MAS Madrid and the PSOE developed and published their own models of administrative resources, despite it being a tax approved by the Council of Ministers of which their acronym is a part.
Queues in Torrejon de Ardoz to complain about the rate of litter
From the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the capital they confirm that it is a charge they are not satisfied with, and therefore, the PP pledges to eliminate it if it reaches Moncloa. Until then, they defend their computational model. They recall that in addition, they “postponed until the last minute” approval of the tax to give it “greater legal certainty.” But they expect that this tax “will be accompanied by significant litigation.”
However, they are still ignoring the number of claims and will not be able to announce them until the end of the year, when the annual payment period ends. Vox also does not, at this time, handle data on the number of complaints. For its part, according to the Mas Madrid website, more than 10,500 people were interested in the appeal form they submitted to citizens on their website, although they do not know how many people transferred it to official channels.
Far from administrative claims facilitated by the opposition for taxpayers, the municipal group led by Javier Ortega Smith went further and filed a controversial administrative appeal before the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) against the accounts of José Luis Martínez Almeida’s team. They even requested precautionary measures last September, when the first receipts began to be received corresponding to 2025. The Vox party took a similar measure in Pozuelo de Alarcón, where Paloma Tejero (Popular Party) governs. But with a nuance: they did not resume the current rate, but rather the 2026 rate. The new tax decrees include rebates and bonuses that represent savings for residents compared to the previous year.
Home scammers
In light of all this chaos that the various municipalities of the Madrid region are witnessing in the face of the new rate that aims to encourage recycling, there are those who are exploiting it to profit illegally. The Torrejon de Ardoz City Council has become vigilant after residents of this municipality reported being defrauded by fake collectors.
As this newspaper has learned, some individuals went to homes in the city center – where many elderly people live – posing as council officials and telling them they had come to collect the rubbish fee. The local police have set up a device to control this situation, and the national police are now searching for those involved.
Some talk about hundreds. Others do it by the thousands. Although the majority of sources consulted by this newspaper are cautious and assume that it is “impossible to determine” the number of neighborhood complaints due to the new litter rate. The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has so far “one thousand inquiries about the rate of litter, spread throughout the Spanish geography”; Yes, many of these correspond to residents of the municipality of Madrid, and refer to ABC.
The platform, which provides advice to all consumers in the country, dealt with an avalanche of requests for assistance which it resolved by providing users with a basic complaint form. Vacua did that too. In their case, they cannot deal with complaints about the rate of waste in municipalities “of all political colours”, and have provided dozens of forms on their website to complete, depending on the area in which the complaint is made.
According to a Vaqua spokesman, the problem arises from the asymmetric models applied by the regions. The “most dangerous” case is that of those who “impose a number” without taking into account family situation or economic resources.
There are also other models that penalize depending on the size of the house. “Part of the fault may be that only one person lives in a large house and in a small house he lives more and pollutes more,” they warn the organization.
They therefore call, firstly, for the establishment of a common protocol promoted by the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP) for all municipalities and, secondly, for governments also to make an effort. For example, to place more containers or to monitor neighbours’ recycling activity. That is, “objectification of the norm.”