Garbage bags outside the containers, cartons and broken glass in the streets of the historic centres and food scraps scattered parks are part of the urban landscape of our cities. What is the pneumatic collection? The situation alarming living cities by the serious problems of accumulation and pollution arising from municipal solid waste (MSW), the pneumatic waste collection is presented as one of the alternatives more effective and innovative in our country. It should be recalled that the generation of MSW in Spain has doubled in less than ten years, going from 12 million in 1991 to 26.5 billion in 2000, according to collect Greenpeace in a report. The first Spanish experience in pneumatic refuse collection scenario was the Olympic village of Barcelona. Installed in 1990, with this system were meant the needs of waste collection in the houses destined for Olympic athletes. Municipalities as Leganes and Palma de Mallorca have followed the Barcelona example. The last City to implement it has been Vitoria. Did the past year, giving service to about 10,000 people and with an annual collection of 2,300,000 kilos.
Unlike the Spanish case, where his presence is still limited, these facilities are more popular in the rest of Europe, perhaps because they work for twenty-five years in countries such as Sweden. The option of pneumatic waste collection acquires special attraction for old urban spaces. The citizens who live in the old town or a town described as historical heritage are facing a serious problem: how to pick their garbage? On the one hand, the installation of containers in these homes causes an aesthetic pollution, according to municipal sources, and, on the other hand, in many places, due to the narrowness of the streets, the placement of containers and their subsequent collection, given the impossibility of garbage trucks access is problematic.