The opposition in the Tenerife Council yesterday rejected again “the burning of waste” in the Arico Environmental Complex and demanded that the agreement of the Plenary Commission be respected, which requested that the thermal treatments that the island government (PSOE-Cs) intend to introduce be suspended. So they manifested yesterday so much Canary Coalition As the Popular Party regarding the announcement of the island government team to continue with the competition to install a recycling plant in Arico that allows the use of high-temperature systems to eliminate garbage. And that despite the fact that the Plenary Commission of November 19 approved “to reverse” the tender with the votes of CC, PP and Sí Podemos Canarias, this last external partner formation of PSOE and Ciudadanos.
Both political groups consider that it is “incineration”, while the island government relies on two reports to deny that pyrolysis, gasification and plasma, the three treatments allowed in the contest, can be legally and technically considered incineration even though they use high temperatures , between 300 and 4,000 degrees Celsius, to eliminate garbage and obtain energy in return, which is known as energy recovery.
The Popular Group requests “a consensual solution” with the Arico City Council after their representatives visited this Town Hall yesterday. Counselor Valentín González assures that the president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martin, “Works from the imposition because it breaks the social and political consensus that existed in waste management in Tenerife.” The spokesman for the popular in Arico, Andrés Martínez, claims for his part “means to comply with what Europe commands, without reaching the burning of waste.” The PP defends that “the incinerator should be the last option and its start-up does not comply with a plenary agreement of the Cabildo, which shows the scant democratic will of the measure.”
“We ask for means to comply with Europe without having to reach the burning of waste”
The PP in the Cabildo summarizes its position in a “frontal rejection of the burning of waste in the Arico Environmental Complex as announced by the government group.” Valentín González expressed his concern and recalled that the European Union indicates that “before incineration it is necessary to go through the maximization of prevention, selective collection, recycling, composting and, finally, the energy recovery of at least a part of the waste flow ”, which are the methods that the Cabildo wants to implement.
González Évora describes this “unilateral” decision of the Cabildo as “a kick to democracy.” It alludes to the plenary agreement of March 2019, by which all political groups, including the Socialist Party, “agreed to declare Tenerife a territory free of incinerators.”
González recalls that, in addition, a scarce month ago (on November 19) an agreement was reached in the Plenary Commission of Sustainability, Roads, Innovation and Culture «to suspend the tender for the drafting of the project to implement the burning of waste in the Arico Complex ». However, he adds, “this government has ignored it to show that it systematically ignores the decisions that are taken in the democratic organs of the Cabildo.”
“Unilateral” decision
For the PP, “this unilateral decision, in which Arico’s position has not been taken into account, breaks the political and social consensus that existed around waste management in Tenerife.” The popular spokesman in the Arico City Council, Andrés Martínez, confirms that “There has been no conversation with the Cabildo.” He adds that “they have proceeded from obscurity, lack of transparency and absolute opacity.” Valentín González recalls that the Cabildo “has not yet responded to the Ariquero City Council in its historical claim in relation to the compensation agreement for the location of the CAT in its territory.” The PP concludes that as of the 517,000 tons of waste that arrive each year at the CAT, only 10% is recycled, “the Cabildo must bet on providing the means and resources to comply with European regulations such as the use of the fifth container, which only the municipalities of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Granadilla de Abona have started up on the island ».
“The Cabildo works from the imposition and breaks the social consensus that existed in Tenerife”
The nationalists refer to their request for an extraordinary plenary session to deal with “this breach.” CC sources clarify that “for many reports submitted by the island government, at least countered by others to the contrary, we must comply with European regulations.” CC emphasizes that «at the proposal of the socialist José Antonio Valbuena, then councilor of the Cabildo and today in the Canary Islands Government“, There is an agreement” unanimously “of the full island of March 29, 2019 to declare Tenerife territory free of incinerators.
They insist from CC that “it was approved by all political groups” and underline that it implies “expressing the explicit resignation of this institution to incineration as a method to solve the island’s waste management.” They conclude that this agreement “assumes the institutional commitment to deploy all the policies and technical measures necessary to guarantee that it is never necessary to resort to it.”