Shit crossing the sea

The Popular Party continues to be convinced – and often states it in the declarations of its leaders – that environmental policies are a brake on the economy. In terms of climate emergency, contrary to all the evidence we are already suffering, they remain at the point where sports commentator M. Rajoy left it when he spoke to us about his denialist cousin. It happens that this has direct consequences on citizens and the places where we live. For example, the cuts and oversights in environmental safety have caused deaths and disappearances in the flood in the Valencian Country and, recently, in the fires in Almeria. Climate change and its consequences is or should be one of the top priorities of governments, whether state, autonomous or municipal. Our right prefers to relativize it, and often, in relation to environmental policies, they come out with frivolities and jokes.A frivolity is that the Consell d'Eivissa, in a year like 2026, has not even begun to prepare a waste plan that can be called as such and that is in line with the European Union's directives in this matter, based on the precepts of the circular economy. Quite the contrary, Ibiza (due to the neglect of its rulers) separates less and recycles fewer waste. To make matters worse, the Ca na Putxa landfill is now ending its useful life cycle, which means an accumulation of waste and refuse that the oversaturated island of Ibiza cannot cope with. Solution from our authorities: we will take all this material to Mallorca and burn it there. We will transport it by boat and, once in Mallorca, in trucks that will circulate at night, "so as not to disturb traffic". Apparently, our rulers must not travel much at night, in the summer, on the Mallorcan roads. It is a magnificent idea: we will take the shit – we are talking about it – from a overflowing island to the neighboring island, also overflowing, but larger. As denounced by the platform against the transfer of waste from Ibiza (formed by 17 neighborhood and environmental organizations, established at the Son Sardina neighborhood center), the effects of this maneuver could be disastrous at all levels. We are talking about 80,000 (eighty thousand) tons of waste per year to be incinerated, in addition to the problems that Mallorca already has in managing its own waste: besides pollution and bad smells, public health problems can arise. The first transfer has already been made, not without last-minute setbacks.A bit of a joke, when the current government of the Consell de Mallorca was formed, was to appoint an environmental denier like Pedro Bestard, from Vox, as Minister of the Environment. Like when Mazón appointed a Francoist bullfighter as Minister of Culture of the Valencian Generalitat. These are things that amuse our right-wing leaders, but they are no longer so funny when they are applied to real management. Apart from his problems with official cars, Bestard is a person whose capacity to assume public responsibilities is reasonably questionable. Leaving a strategic social policy like the Environment under the supervision of someone like him, and such a delicate job as the transport of 80,000 tons of waste annually from Ibiza to Mallorca, is worse than recklessness. It is a demonstration of ineptitude that could have undesirable consequences, precisely for the environment and for people. And naturally, transparency in these waste transports is essential: exactly who is paid what amounts, when, how, and for what. We know ourselves.