Mac's Poll - Let's Vote

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POLL : Do you consider Spain's streets to be cleaner than in the UK?
Thursday, November 14, 2013 @ 10:46 AM

"A STREET-CLEANER strike in Madrid has left the capital buried in rubbish and numerous foreign tourists disappointed.

Visitors from as far afield as Hungary and México said they 'did not expect' to find Madrid was 'such a filthy city' after they had heard so many good reports about it.

The city centre and areas near the main tourist hotspots have always been highly-praised by foreigners coming to check out the Spanish capital for their cleanliness and good condition and maintenance.

But with cleaners and gardeners having downed tools a week ago, most are finding the opposite is true and are desperately seeking salubrious parts of the city to take photographs.

Litter and dog excrement fills pavements, roads and even park benches, bins are overflowing, remains of food, rotting oranges fallen from trees, broken bottles, and even vomit left by drunken revellers on their way home from a night out are now a common sight.

And at least eight wheelie-bins have been burnt during the protests held by striking cleaners, five of whom were arrested but have since been released.

Residents have complained bitterly at the state of their city, saying it gives a poor image to visitors and that if action is not taken, 'tourists will leave and not bother to come back'.

They say the filthy conditions of the capital are 'embarrassing' and 'intolerable', bad for tourism but 'even worse for residents in Madrid'."

Although this is an unusual situation due to the strike it brought to mind the comparison of the cleanliness of streets between the UK and Spain. I remember when living in London that the streets in my opinion were much dirtier than when I lived in Madrid and on the whole I would say that Spain has a very high level of cleanliness when it comes to public areas, but maybe my experience isn't that of others....

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18 Comments

Red said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 8:37 AM

Just as dirty, if not more so.

Jax said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 8:44 AM

Cities tend to be cleaner in Spain but small villages tend to be dirtier, especially with dog poo and litter blowing all over the place.

bilbo.s said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 8:51 AM

They are certainly much cleaner in my town. Every day I see street cleaners at work and they even come up to our little housing estate outside the town. Our immediate neighbours put us to shame, as they sweep their pavements every morning.

I agree that dog poo is a problem and young people drop litter willy-nilly, but that is a universal problem. the big cities I know are immaculate compared to UK - less McDonalds etc.

David H said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 9:22 AM

I think Spain's streets are generally cleaner than those in the UK, except for dog excrement.
The very good reason must be that there are far more people in Spain who are happy to perform relatively unskilled work, not for lack of intelligence but sadly because they are victims of a weak educational system.
Of course the UK streets would be as clean if the unemployed were willing to do the work, or if the minimum wage was not a restraining factor on councils.

Pasha01 said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 10:03 AM

The streets around the Orihuela are disgraceful, in many urbanisations the green waste is left for weeks lying on the streets, rotting. The Councils answer is to tell owners to take it to a specified site, the problem is most are holiday homes and you can hardly put it in a hire car. They sold all these holiday homes but didn't think it through. In many commercial centers, the entrances are becoming very unattractive, with piles of commercial waste stacked 2 to 3 metres high, smelling awful, not exactly what you want to see when going out for a meal, or shopping. The papers are full of complaints.

SirJ said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 10:13 AM

Dog poo is our biggest concern with litter coming a close second

Pasha01 said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 10:38 AM

I should have said Orihuela Costa, the city of Orihuela is kept much cleaner than the coast. We also suffer with dog poo, but that's down to owners who will not clean up.

Anna said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 11:46 AM

Th bins on my urbanisation are emptied every night and there's a special collection every Monday for garden waste. So that helps to keep the litter down. Dog poo is a big problem though but most of the offenders are NOT Spanish. In the UK, with binmen coming every 2 weeks, it's hardly surprising that litter can cause problems.

Cindi said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 5:10 PM

The large bins near me are emptied frequently but the dog poo is unbelievable in my area of Roda San Javier

Peter said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 7:05 PM

I find most of the streets in the cities and larger towns are usually very clean (apart from the dog mess admittedly). In the more rural areas, especially rural roads, there are often hundreds of plastic bottles by the roadside. It is obvious that drivers are throwing these from their vehicles and creating a real eyesore. I am embarrassed to take visitors down certain roads in my area (Orihuela Costa) because of the mess.

Pasha01 said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 10:29 PM

Where I live in the UK my bin men take the rubbish and re-cycling each week and the green garden waste fortnightly, so we have no problems except for the people who just drop litter etc in the streets. personally they should be heavily fined as should dog owners should be who won't clean up.

eos_ian said:
Saturday, November 16, 2013 @ 10:37 PM

I live in Valencia and the rubbish is collected daily and the streets are washed down at least twice a week. So I have to say that streets are very clean.

Ann-Marie said:
Monday, November 18, 2013 @ 10:04 AM

I always enjoy going to Spain, it is much cleaner than the UK and the Spanish seem proud of their country.

There were issues 10 years ago, with public toilets - but it is lovely to see cleaners "cleaning, bleaching etc.".

The UK on the whole isn't clean and when there are cleaners, the products used do not clean. Public toilets these days are no go areas.

Even the roads in Spain are generally cleaned on a weekly basis and I can't tell you the last time the roads were swept where I live in the UK.

I agree with the dog mess comments though, but from experience this seems to be caused generally by ex-pats.

Pasha01 said:
Monday, November 18, 2013 @ 3:41 PM

If the Spanish cared so much about the country, they would have turned large parts into a concrete jungle full of back to back houses or new houses which don't fit with the old. I'm not sure what part of the country you a speaking about Ann-marie but where I am, it's cetainly not cared for, sadly.

Harper said:
Monday, November 18, 2013 @ 5:41 PM

The brits near me all have bags with them for dog mess but the Locals do not and would not consider buying them. That is the majority but not all locals

Jake said:
Saturday, December 14, 2013 @ 7:18 AM

The streets have always been clearer in Spain even back in the 1960's

Bob Watson said:
Saturday, September 27, 2014 @ 9:58 AM

I think it all depends on where you live, In our village the locals seem to look at us in amazement when we pick up after our dogs but are quite happy to let their dogs defacate outside of your house (not theirs) until I pointed out that it would be picked up and returned in a bag to their garden.. I think its just a matter of education as I have been to some places in Spain that are very clean and no dog mess and also some places where one has to watch every step.

Santiago said:
Monday, September 19, 2016 @ 8:25 AM

I'm surprised by most people's answers here, but then I thought they must be mostly by British ex-pats living predominantly in well cared, private Spanish "urbanizaciones." Elsewhere in the country, the story outside these is usually a very different one, though.

Although there are vast regional, even local differences, with northern Spain generally fairing a lot better than the south, my own personal impression is that public spaces in the UK –esp. parks– are a lot better in terms of cleanliness than those in Spain.

I lived nine years in Boston, Massachusetts and visited French-speaking Canada quite extensively, and I can say that they were both spic-and-span clean, particularly Canada. You can almost lick the pavement (sidewalk) there without the fear of getting sick (ill)!

And most importantly, in neither country were there squadrons of professional street cleaners like there are in Spain, so the main lesson to be learned here is: if people don't litter the streets and other public spaces to begin with, then (1) streets and parks would be a lot cleaner (they are in other countries) and (2) there would be no need for Spanish taxes to be employed in hiring clean teams and their expensive work gear. Your choice!