The possibility of combining the use of the waste collection centers with other types of community facilities is feasible thanks to the characteristics of the system itself, without odors or noise.

Envac develops a typology of waste collection centers that allows compatibility with other uses that generate value for the community. This is aided by the zero environmental impact of these facilities and the absence of citizen contact with the waste once they are introduced into the system.

The paradigm of this versatile use of the buildings hosting the collection centers, a line of action the company has been committed to since its foundation in the 1960s, has been reflected in numerous systems worldwide. Among them, one of its latest developments stands out, the Barking Riverside project in London, considered one of the most innovative projects along the Thames River.

The building housing the collection center, named The Wilds and awarded two RICS UK Awards by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, is conceived as a community, ecological, and multipurpose events space open to the public. Above the ground floor, where the industrial equipment of the collection center is located, various spaces are arranged to meet multiple citizen needs. The building accommodates a cafeteria, exhibition and special event rooms, workshops, coworking area, and garden zone.

"Invisible" centers for citizens

With the philosophy of generating minimal or non-existent impact on the environment where the pneumatic system is located, Envac also plans centers that are practically invisible to citizens' perception, as they are harmoniously integrated with the urban or natural environment in which they are situated.

Examples of these centers can be found in the municipality of Majadahonda. In the case of the pneumatic system transporting waste in the Los Negrillos area, the central building is located underground in a public park, constituting a harmonious coexistence of industrial infrastructure with a natural area that has not seen its characteristics altered. Other cities with centers located in public parks include Barcelona, Sabadell, Santander, or Vitoria.

A similar solution, but this time in an urban enclave, is adopted in the Monte del Pilar area, also in Majadahonda. The collection center has been placed beneath the public road, occupying the space of a roundabout. Thus, in addition to freeing up public space, the visual impact disappears that would be caused by an industrial building in a naturally beautiful area.

Inside road infrastructures

Other analogous cases, where road infrastructures have been utilized to house pneumatic collection centers, can be found in Barakaldo, where the underside of a bridge has been utilized for installation, or in Donosti, specifically in the Riberas de Loiola neighborhood. Its placement has been carried out in the lower part of the bypass on Zorroaga promenade.
In established areas, the option has sometimes leaned towards locating them in existing buildings. This is the case, for example, in the Ciutat Vella district, right in the heart of Barcelona, where the center is placed beneath the Santa Caterina Market, and in the same district, on Robadors Street, where the center occupies the lower part of a hotel. Also in Llodio (Álava), a public parking lot has been utilized to accommodate this installation.

Environmental classrooms

Another modality of shared use of pneumatic collection centers with other types of community activities is found in cities like Zaragoza, Pamplona, or Almería, where the buildings alternate their original function with complementary ones, such as the location of clean points or environmental classrooms regularly used for courses and workshops for residents and students. This occurs, for example, with the system in the city of Bergen, Norway, where the collection center is located beneath the offices of the company managing the city's cleaning and waste collection.

The possibility of combining the use of the centers with other types of community facilities is possible thanks to the characteristics of the system itself, which produces no odors or bothersome noises due to the tightness of the pipe network, and thus, from the moment citizens dispose of the waste into the system, no one has manual or visual contact with it again. Added to this is the zero environmental impact of the centers, as there is no transfer of waste whatsoever.

All these singularities make it possible for practically 100% of Envac's currently operational centers to accommodate the construction or adaptation, on the upper levels of these buildings, of facilities or spaces designed for other citizen uses.

The possibility of combining the use of the centers with other types of community facilities is possible thanks to the characteristics of the system itself, without odors or noise.