The area of Sustainable Development and Fight against Climate Change of the Cabildo has just put out to tender the private exploitation of a 25,000 square meter public plot of the Environmental Complex that treats all the garbage on the Island for the installation of a plant with state-of-the-art processing to reduce the size of the waste to the maximum and obtain energy in the processes, a technology that the experts consider is still in testing .
The winning company may occupy those land for 15 years with a plant that, in addition to conventional recycling, will be able to incorporate three new heat treatments: pyrolysis, gasification and plasma. The contest excludes incineration, one of these high-temperature treatments that make up the energy recovery as it is not contemplated in the Canary Islands Waste Plan (Pircan). It is a great novelty in the waste policy of the Insular Corporation.
The CC-PNC group of the Cabildo de Tenerife denounces that the island government group intends to install “a plant to burn waste” in the Environmental Complex of Tenerife. The nationalist councilor, Blanca Pérez, considers that with the aforementioned contest the Cabildo «contravenes European directives, which prioritize composting over the energy recovery of organic matter ”. “We believe it is a mistake and we will present an initiative to prioritize recycling over energy recovery,” explained Pérez.
These technologies – pyrolysis, gasification and plasma processes, with the application of temperatures between 300 and 4,000 degrees Celsius – “are not sufficiently contrasted and also contradict the waste management contest that the Cabildo tendered in 2018,” recalls Blanca Perez. It further notes that European Union raises energy recovery «always as a last option» for all waste that cannot be recycled, «but the Cabildo has chosen to burn, heat treat or recover, not to say that we are talking about incineration, the organic matter of sewage sludge , the separation in the treatment plants and livestock waste ”.
«We do not understand this decision of the PSOE and Citizens. We cannot afford to burn organic matter or livestock waste instead of composting it. Tenerife it is deficient in compost and agriculture demands quality compost “, claimed Blanca Pérez, who warned that Tenerife” could be sanctioned by the European Union because it will be impossible to meet recycling targets. ” “Law 22/2011 indicates that before the year 2020 at least 50% of waste must be recycled, an objective that is currently not being met nor will the new course taken by the PSOE for waste management be met”, Pérez concludes.
The PP agrees with CC in denouncing that this new strategy “goes against European priorities” but also adds another reproach. «We found out by THE DAY of the contest for introduce these technologies that are based on burning waste. It is one more demonstration of the lack of transparency of this insular government of PSOE and Ciudadanos. This was stated yesterday by Valentín González, counselor of the popular group. “They have opted for the least sustainable model because they have not done the task, which was to create the conditions to reduce waste and increase recycling, which are the priorities set by Europe.” González regrets that the island government “has not raised” the commitment to this technology in the Tenerife Waste Management Monitoring Commission, whose last meeting was held in March, a forum with the participation of the political groups of the Cabildo, the town councils , social groups and companies in the sector.
The insular councilor for Sustainable Development, Javier Rodríguez (PSOE), defended the contest by ensuring that it “prioritizes” recycling, although it also allows heat treatments. Rodríguez denies that these methods are incineration, not contemplated by the Government of the Canary Islands, and stresses that the new plant will have little environmental impact. The new facility will be commissioned to treat 76,000 tons of garbage per year out of the total 540,000 that the Environmental Complex receives per year.
