Technical specification for recycling centre software: procurement guide for Galician town councils

Summary: Drafting the technical specification for procuring recycling centre management software in a public procurement process requires defining functional, regulatory and implementation requirements that many town councils do not have documented. This guide helps you structure that specification with verifiable criteria, adapted to Galician regional regulations and the operational reality of your teams.

Why a poorly drafted specification complicates subsequent management
What the contract object should describe
Minimum functional requirements the specification should include
Regulatory requirements specific to Galicia
Technical evaluation criteria
Implementation and support conditions
Common errors when drafting the specification
Checklist before publication

Why a poorly drafted specification complicates subsequent management

An imprecise technical specification is not merely a legal issue. It is the origin of most conflicts that arise once the contract is awarded: software that does not generate the GaIA report in the required format, platforms that do not accommodate your council’s waste categories, or implementations that take months because no one agreed on a specific timeline.

The team that drafts the specification is rarely the same one that will use the software every day. That is why, before opening any procurement process, it is advisable for environmental and administrative personnel to sit down together to identify exactly what is needed. What is not in the specification cannot be demanded from the successful bidder.

What the contract object should describe

The contract object must go beyond “recycling centre management software”. The more specific it is, the less room there is for later interpretations.

A well-defined object includes:

The name of the recycling centre or civic amenity site affected and its municipality
Whether the council manages one or several recycling centres (including mobile recycling centres, if applicable)
Whether the platform should also cover the citizen portal
The type of licence contracted: SaaS subscription on annual basis or perpetual licence
Whether the price includes implementation, training and support, or whether those services are procured separately

Describing the object incompletely forces you later to modify the contract or assume unforeseen costs.

Minimum functional requirements the specification should include

This is the most critical section of the technical specification. Here you should describe what the software must do, not how it does it. Functional requirements are verifiable and allow you to compare offers objectively.

Registration of entries and waste

Registration by citizen or user (identification, date, time)
Classification of waste by category at the point of receipt
Registration of quantities (in kilograms or units depending on the type of waste)
Ability to add incidents or notes for each entry

For a complete reference on which waste categories should be covered, you can consult the guide to waste categories at municipal recycling centres in Galicia.

Waste traceability

Registration of the final destination of each fraction (authorised waste manager, collection date)
Searchable historical records by category and time period
Export of traceability data in standard formats (CSV, XLSX)

Generation of regulatory reports

Automatic generation of the GaIA report in the format required by Xunta de Galicia
Direct export without the need to rework data manually
Registration of generated reports with date and user

Control panel and usability

Differentiated access by roles (operative, municipal technician, administrator)
Interface usable without prior technical training
Access from mobile devices for use at the recycling centre itself

Citizen portal (if applicable)

Consultation of opening hours and accepted waste fractions
Optional registration of visits by the citizen

Regulatory requirements specific to Galicia

The specification must explicitly require that the software complies with current Galician regional regulations on waste reporting. This includes:

Compatibility with the Xunta de Galicia GaIA system for municipal waste reporting
Adaptation to LER codes (European Waste List) used in regional reports
Capacity for updating in response to regulatory changes at no additional cost to the council

Including a clause that obliges the supplier to update the software in response to regulatory changes is one of the most practical measures you can incorporate. It avoids having to renegotiate the contract every time Xunta de Galicia modifies reporting formats.

To keep up with recent regulatory changes affecting your recycling centre, consult the article on waste reporting regulations in Galicia.

Technical evaluation criteria

The specification must establish evaluation criteria that allow you to distinguish between offers. If you only evaluate price, you will receive cheap proposals that do not address your real needs.

Recommended technical criteria and their indicative weighting:

Functional suitability to the requirements described (30-40 points)
Guaranteed implementation timeline with verifiable milestones (15-20 points)
Quality and scope of training included (10-15 points)
Technical support model: guaranteed response times, available channels (10-15 points)
Previous experience in Galician town councils or similar local entities (10 points)
Total contract price (20-25 points)

You can adjust these weightings according to your council’s priorities, but technical criteria should represent no less than 60% of the total score if you want to guarantee that the awarded software works in practice.

Implementation and support conditions

The specification must establish concrete conditions for the implementation phase and for subsequent support. Without those conditions, the successful bidder can interpret their obligations very loosely.

Implementation

Maximum timeframe for operational implementation from contract signature (recommended: 4-6 weeks maximum)
Implementation plan with verifiable milestones and deliverables
Customisation of categories, workflows and roles according to the council’s operations
Migration of historical data if the council has previous records in another format

Training

Minimum number of training sessions for operatives and technical staff
Method (in-person or remote) and minimum duration by profile
Training materials delivered in written or digital format

Ongoing support

Designated support channel and guaranteed response time for critical incidents (recommended: maximum 4 hours on working days)
Software updates included during the contract period
Designated contact person assigned to the council

Common errors when drafting the specification

These are the most frequent errors that appear in technical specifications for recycling centre management software:

Vague functional requirements: phrases such as “the software shall manage waste efficiently” are not verifiable and do not allow for objective comparison of offers.
Failure to specify GaIA report format: the supplier may deliver a report that requires manual reworking before sending it to Xunta de Galicia.
Omitting the implementation timeframe: without an agreed timeframe, deployment can stretch for months without contractual consequence.
Including training as optional: if it is not in the contract, the supplier has no obligation to offer it at the agreed cost.
Failure to require regulatory updates: the software can become outdated at the first change from Xunta de Galicia at no covered cost.
Evaluating price only: leads to awards that generate more expenditure on unforeseen support and subsequent adaptations.

If your team currently works with manual registration or with generic software that does not fit your needs, the article on manual waste registration at recycling centres describes the concrete operational problems that a well-drafted specification can help you resolve from day one.

Checklist before publication

Before publishing the specification in the procurement portal, review these points:

The contract object identifies the recycling centre or civic amenity site affected and the type of licence
Functional requirements are verifiable and drafted as obligations, not wishes
The specification requires GaIA compatibility and updating in response to regulatory changes
Technical evaluation criteria represent at least 60% of the total score
The implementation timeframe is set with milestones and penalties for non-compliance
Training is included in the contract with defined minimum scope
Support has guaranteed response times and a specified contact channel
You have consulted the staff who will use the software to validate the functional requirements

If you need a clear reference on what the software must fulfil before your council adopts it, the guide on requirements that municipal waste management software must meet directly complements this specification.

At TuPuntoLimpio we work with Galician town councils to ensure implementation is operational in 2 to 4 weeks, with regional regulations already integrated and without your team having to do the adaptation work. If you are preparing a procurement process and would like to benchmark your specification against the platform’s actual capabilities, you can contact us at tupuntolimpio.es.