SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 17. (EUROPE PRESS) –
Today, Thursday, the Governing Council approved the preliminary draft of the Circular Economy Law of the Canary Islands, whose main challenge is to convert the waste generated by all the economic activities of the Islands into resources and establish mandatory recycling.
In addition, it aims to optimize products or materials to the maximum, minimize the generation of waste and reduce its impact on the planet, while contributing to the fight against climate change. It also establishes obligations and sanctioning regime for all sectors and for the citizens of the Archipelago, as an active part of this process.
In this way, the Government of the Canary Islands has managed to comply with this procedure for the three laws that make up the environmental legislative ecosystem that was announced from the beginning of the legislature. For its part, the Climate Change and Energy Transition Law is already undergoing parliamentary proceedings and the objective is that the Biodiversity and Natural Resources Law and the Circular Economy Law enter the regional Chamber before the summer of this year.
The general principles that make up this document are the shared responsibility of public administrations, companies and society in general. For this, all these sectors must be actively involved, taking responsibility for the application of the circular economy model in their respective field of competence. In addition, as a general principle there is also the integrated approach in the analysis of the environmental impact of the life cycles of goods, products and services.
The promotion of information, transparency and public participation in the development process of public policies to be implemented through this Law is also part of the objectives of this regulation. And, in the same way, the promotion of education for sustainability, the promotion of technical progress through the promotion of research, development and innovation in life cycle analysis and environmental matters, and the promotion and support of industrial activity in the Canary Islands as an essential sector to ensure that the objectives of the Law are effective.
The opportunity in the processing of this Law is given by the need to comply with different national and international regulatory milestones on waste.
At the regional level, the Statute of Autonomy of the Canary Islands and the Canarian Circular Economy Strategy 2021-2030, and at the state level, the Spanish Circular Economy Strategy 2030 (EEEC). From the European point of view, the new Circular Economy Plan for a cleaner and more efficient Europe stands out, within the so-called European Green Deal (EU Green Deal) and community policies, in the field of waste.
This milestone joins the recent approval of the Comprehensive Waste Plan for the Canary Islands (Pircan), a planning instrument that the Archipelago had lacked since 2006, which is why this procedure was declared urgent.