A report from the Technical Service for Sustainable Development of the Cabildo, dated March 3, takes stock of the management of household waste during 2020. Although it was an exceptional year due to the effects of pandemic one piece of information is clear: very little is recycled before the garbage reaches the CAT. Once there, the result is not positive either because it is basically late and it is no longer possible during this process to reuse the waste that ends up in the dreaded dumping cells. I mean, buried.
Of the total domestic waste received last year, 516,893 tons, 145,712, 28.19%, went directly to those cells. Of the 371,181,131 of All in One (the green container), 71% of the total received in the CAT, only 12,743, 2.5%, has been converted into recycled material. The amount is much lower compared to 2019 – even with the pandemic factor -, when they were 17,381. A serious problem for, in addition to better managing waste, complying with very demanding European directives in this area.
Trash rejections directed to landfill cells are enormous. In this report from last year, the green container 178,429 tons went down that road. But it is that of the organic fraction, that is, remains of food or of a similar type, 164,578 tons were collected and the vast majority, until reaching 148,522, also went to the cells. Only 9.8%, 16,056, were recovered by biostabilization, which is commonly known as composting.
“The CAT receives just over 500,000 tons per year and 80% is buried.” The phrase is from the island councilor for Ecological Transition and Fight against climate change, Javier Rodríguez Medina, to justify the actions to be taken to face this reality. Last year’s figures are even worse. Thus, recycling barely reached that 2.5% and the official calculation, with data from the Cabildo Service itself, of the garbage derived from the CAT dump cells reached no less than 93.4%.
These figures must be reduced. And as quickly as possible. One of the routes chosen by the Council has been the bidding of spaces for recycling in the Complex. But the key is elsewhere, according to all the sources consulted. Specifically, in selective collection at source. This is what the EU itself establishes in its priorities regarding waste management and treatment: prevention, reuse, recycling (material recovery) and Energy recovery. It does not prohibit the latter, but leaves it as a final possibility.
This report on March 3 was released at the last meeting of the Insular Waste Management Commission that this week has demanded Canary Coalition that is summoned.
2020 data
The balance report of the Sustainable Development and Fight against Climate Change area establishes that the total of domestic waste received in the CAT of Arico last year was 516,893 tons, with a decrease of 11.5% compared to 2019 (584,268,670). Municipalities dumped 412,430,215 tons (79.8%) and private individuals 104,463,210 (20.2%). During 2020, a total of 414,841,475 tons (80.3%) were transported from the Transfer Plants –La Guancha, La Orotava, Arona and El Rosario–, and 102,051 (19.7%) entered directly. The discharge registered decreases in all plants, except La Guancha with a small increase of 2.1%. Direct discharges at the Complex also fell by 12.1%. In the discharges by City Councils there has been a decrease of 10.3% compared to the previous year. From 460,261 tons in 2019 to 412,430 in 2020. Logical oscillations due to the consequences of the pandemic that affected much more tourist areas. Of the 371,181 tons processed, 178,429 have been transported to the dumping cell as rejects from the process for treatment, 16,056 of the organic fraction have been biostabilized and 11,932 have been destined for maturation. 12,743 tons of non-organic material have been recovered and delivered to registered managers for recycling, a quantity significantly lower than that recovered in 2019, 17,381. Another note of interest is a history of the waste received annually, since 1985, the beginning of the then PIRS (Insular Solid Waste Plant) until December 31, 2020. They help to get an idea of the evolution of needs of the island’s waste management in direct relation to its exponential growth as a result of the increase in population. In this way, it should be noted that in 1985 135,463 tons of garbage were managed for the 516,893 in 2020. Although it is better to compare with 2019 and its 584,268 tons because it was the year before the pandemic.
Clean points
An institutional agreement dated September 30, at the request of the PP counselor, Valentín González, urges the creation of new clean points on the island as a waste collection system. Another step on the road to recycling and collection at source. Tenerife currently has eight Clean Points that they managed during 2020, 41,881 tons of waste, 5.2% less than in 2019. The number of users also fell, 4.2%, from 239,038 to 228,981. Something logical as a consequence of the closure of these spaces during the alarm state. Household rubble continues to be the waste that is most managed in these facilities, with 30,333 tons, approximately 72.4% of the total. The Taco clean point is the one with the highest management with 18,390 tons and 82,069 registered users during 2020. The sources consulted consider that “these figures need to be greatly improved.” They add: “It is enough to calculate the users, in a population close to a million people to verify the deficit in a key tool for recycling.” These experts point out that “the greatest efficiency between kilos and inhabitants occurs in La Guancha.” Güímar and Buenavista share the podium, while La Orotava and La Laguna (Las Torres de Taco) would be at a medium level. The queue would be for Jagua, in Santa Cruz, Arona and Adeje. The Cabildo has announced that it will build eight new clean points in Los Rodeos (La Laguna), Tegueste, Las Eras (Fasnia), CAT (Arico), Granadilla, Las Chafiras (San Miguel), Vilaflor and Playa de San Juan (Guide to Isora).
Other instruments
Awareness campaigns, the organic container or the clean mini-points. They are other instruments on the path to better waste management. Regarding the campaigns, a source points out that “they are key and in Europe people are rewarded for taking the garbage to the clean point”. Regarding the fifth container, the brown one, for organic waste has already been implemented, for example, in Santa Cruz. On the management of minipoints cleans, the service report highlights that there are five units that began operating on December 18, 2017 and have been placed to date in twelve municipalities on the island.
The future
The Arico Environmental Complex is arranged over an area of 200 hectares (2,000,000 m2). intended for the treatment, recovery, recovery and disposal processes. According to all the sources consulted “it cannot grow much more than in those plots that have been tendered now.” In addition, they insist, “it is not about growing up but, for example, about tender composting plants». And, to “follow the parameters of Europe to be efficient in waste management, especially in a divided and insular territory.” Reducing what goes to the dumping cell is the objective and public awareness is essential for this. More recycling to relieve CAT.
More than three decades
The Tenerife Environmental Complex is located in the municipality of Arico, in the southeast of the Island. Its beginning dates back to 1985, as a result of the effort between the different administrations to alleviate the problem of uncontrolled discharges that existed on the Island. Its origin It was a single controlled island landfill that had an approximate surface area of 300,000 m2 (30 Ha) and with a planned capacity to receive municipal waste from four transfer plants distributed throughout the island’s geography until 2015. The development experienced by society insular, as well as the policies and regulations for the protection of the Environment have led to a change in the system with respect to the one initially developed. The concept of a landfill has been passed to that of an Environmental Complex for Tenerife.
