Northeast Tenerife Community Launches New Recycling Initiative
The Northeast Tenerife Community will feature eight proximity recycling points and two mobile recycling points. These urban facilities are designed to facilitate the selective collection of waste and bring recycling closer to residents of Tacoronte, El Sauzal, La Matanza de Acentejo, La Victoria de Acentejo, Santa Úrsula, and El Rosario. This initiative is part of the campaign ‘You are part of this Island, make it circular!’, launched in celebration of the World Environment Day and aims to promote sustainable resource use and improve recycling habits across the six municipalities.
Funded by the European NextGenerationEU scheme, with an investment of over €600,000, the main objective is to engage the community, local businesses, and visitors in the correct management of waste. This initiative aims to promote appropriate reduction, reuse, and recycling of waste, thereby minimising the environmental impact on the island.
Overview of New Facilities
The proximity recycling points are smaller fixed installations than traditional recycling points. They are integrated into urban settings (such as squares or streets) to ensure accessibility for everyone. These points feature filling sensors with digital door openings controlled by cards to prevent vandalism and are self-sufficient thanks to photovoltaic panels. In contrast, the mobile recycling points are itinerant infrastructures located in trucks or adapted vans that will travel across different neighbourhoods or districts on a specific rotational schedule.
The recycling systems will collect a variety of materials including small electrical and electronic devices, batteries, light bulbs, aerosols, toner cartridges, vegetable and mineral oils, as well as other materials like non-packaging plastics and optical media. The two mobile points will operate throughout the member municipalities, while the eight proximity containers will be distributed across the six municipalities based on the needs of each local council.
Improvements to Waste Collection System
The enhancement of the selective collection network adds to the improvements noted in the region’s main recycling indicators. For lightweight packaging, an increase of almost 24% was recorded from January to April 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, equating to a ratio of over 11 kilograms per inhabitant per year. For paper and cardboard, the significant increase during the same timeframe was over 27%, reaching nearly 13 kilograms per inhabitant per year.
Additionally, in May 2025, a new door-to-door commercial cardboard collection service was introduced. Following an awareness campaign led by environmental educators from the community, 136 businesses from the six municipalities have already signed up. This service is dynamic, allowing new businesses to join at any time, and results indicate a remarkable rise: from 6,700 kilograms collected in 2025 to about 48,000 kilograms accumulated by April 2026.
Raising Awareness of Improved Habits
During the campaign presentation, a 37-second promotional video created by Canarian bodypainting artist Paula Mateos, who has over 600,000 social media followers, was screened. In the video, body painting, which is a signature style of the Canarian artist, becomes a visual tool to raise awareness about proper container use and the importance of improving recycling habits in Northeast Tenerife.
Moreover, this campaign forms part of the roadmap developed by environmental organisation Ecoembes and the community since 2021. Initiatives have included various environmental awareness campaigns focused on selective collection and recycling, combining education, events, digital tools, and audiovisual materials. This includes significant upgrades to the infrastructure of member municipalities — with 29 containers for light packaging and 29 for paper and cardboard — as well as the Ecohostelero project, which integrates 200 businesses to improve recycling habits, and the implementation of a digital waste management system to optimise waste collection services.
Photo of representatives from the municipalities and Ecoembes at the campaign presentation / El Día
“We will ensure that Tenerife becomes a more sustainable island, where waste is transformed into resources and raw materials for the production of new products,” states Carlota Cruz, manager of Ecoembes in the Canary Islands. Meanwhile, Sandra Izquierdo, the mayor of Tacoronte and president of the Community, emphasises the importance of “continuing to promote environmental education among the public, encouraging proper waste separation, and moving towards a more circular model.”
Through this initiative, the Northeast Tenerife Community, which encompasses over 85,000 residents, aims to strengthen environmental awareness among the population and promote more active participation in the proper management of waste. This project is part of the actions the community has been advancing since 1999 to move towards a more sustainable development model that is coordinated among the six municipalities within the region.
