Six municipalities of Tenerife come together to jointly face the 47.4 million euros that the new waste collection service costs for the next seven years. The Commonwealth of the Northeast is a supra-municipal entity that integrates El Rosario, Tacoronte, El Sauzal, La Matanza, La Victoria and Santa Úrsula. Together they add up to 83,300 residents, just over 9% of the island’s population (927,993 inhabitants, according to 2021 data). The axis of the initiative is that united they are stronger.
The plenary hall of the City Council of El Rosario – its mayor, Escolástico Gil, presides over the entity – welcomed the Executive Commission that approved the contracting file for the new street cleaning and garbage collection service that will cover the six municipalities. This document, which will govern the public tender, has a basic bidding budget of close to 50 million euros that each municipality will face based on its population. The Commonwealth saves the costs of a solitary tender from each of the localities.
Escolástico Gil (IR-Los Verdes) explains: «The design and drafting of the technical and administrative specifications of the contract are adapted to the new Public Sector Law, in order to offer the best quality services». It includes, in addition to the pertinent technical specifications, selection criteria for services with the best value for money, as well as social, environmental and innovation perspectives.
The Executive Commission also had the participation of the mayors of Tacoronte, José Daniel Díaz (Nueva Canarias); Santa Úrsula, Juan Manuel Acosta (Independent Group of Santa Úrsula AISU), and El Sauzal, Mariano Pérez (Canarian Coalition). The councilors of Public Services of La Matanza, Miguel Ángel Pérez (PSOE), and of La Victoria, José Daniel Izquierdo (PSOE), represented their respective municipalities at this meeting.
The island, and therefore the Commonwealth of the Northeast, faces an important challenge to adapt its waste management policy to the new regulations emanating from the European Union and going beyond national law. It is in line with meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the UN 2030 Agenda and the Circular Economy. More specifically, the requirements in prevention-reduction and preparation for waste recycling.
An important novelty regarding the services provided is the obligation of the bidders to present a strategy for the implementation of the collection of a new fraction of waste, organic matter, which constitutes up to almost 40% of domestic waste. In response to the problem of the abandonment of belongings in public spaces, the candidate companies will be required, in addition to the provision of the necessary means to correctly manage said waste, to plan actions that raise awareness and inform the population.
The contract file is in the line of giving a boost to the separation of light packaging, paper-cardboard and used domestic oil. The requirement for the dealer is to adapt to the new waste collection channels (metals, mattresses, electrical and electronic equipment, etc.) and correctly manage special waste such as rubble, black oil or tires. The mobilization of citizens will be crucial, so the degree of involvement of companies will be assessed.
Among the issues to be assessed are the development of new containerization, the technical capacity to carry out specific cleaning actions, the machinery to be used or the number of operators that will make up the workforce.
