Opposition to the transfer of waste joins the July 26th demonstration: "We are crossing red lines"

PalmaThe pilot plan for the transfer of waste from Ibiza has begun with the left, the GOB and the residents of ground zero against it. For more than ten years, administrations have known that the Ca na Putxa landfill was at the end of its useful life, but no alternative infrastructures have been built and finally the decision has been made for Mallorca to take on this waste. The residents of Son Sardina and La Garriga have protested, because they consider that they will suffer the direct consequences. Therefore, they are joining the anti-massification demonstration on September 26. "Mallorca is at its limit, we are exceeding the red lines" assures Joan Mateos, representative of the La Garriga residents' association.

The residents of this area yesterday staged a symbolic protest at a point near the Son Reus incinerator, which since this morning has already begun to receive waste from Ibiza. However, they have called for joining the protest against overpopulation called by the Menys Turisme, Més Vida platform. "We will participate with the t-shirt against the transfer of waste, it is a day when everyone who can should go," he defended. Despite having demanded information for weeks on how the transfer will be carried out, they assure that no one from the Consell de Mallorca has contacted them, although they have closed a meeting with the Government.

They distrust the given quantities

Although the technical study attached to the file — to which ARA Balears has had access — foresaw peaks of up to 22 daily truck trips with waste (and a minimum of 9), the most recent information from the Consell d'Eivissa assures that the flow will be seven trucks per day, five days a week, which represents about 3,000 tons per month. This discrepancy between the start of the waste transfer pilot plan and the file documents generates mistrust among residents. "They have made a symbolic act of starting, and a show of force to say they will do it," assures Mateos, who believes that in the long run the ships may carry more waste.

Similarly, question whether Ibiza has committed to not sending bulk waste. The fact that the agreement still allows for part of the waste will be imported in bulk, as explained by ARA Balears, opens the door to the eventual introduction of these types of waste, which carries risks of leaks and bad odors.

The GOB of Ibiza: "We wouldn't be like this if the master plan had been done"

The GOB has announced that it will take the transfer to the courts. For his part, the president of the Nature Study Group of Ibiza (GEN-GOB), Joan Carles Palerm, has lamented the circumstances of the transfer. "We have worked for many years to try to have a master plan that would tell us what to do if the Ca na Putxa landfill reached its limit: we would not be like this if it had been done," he lamented. As he explains, the Consell d'Eivissa had to state in this plan what the location should be to build a dump or an incinerator. "Now there is no possible solution," he criticized: "There is no other choice but to send it to Mallorca, and to work so that the solution is temporary". "We are not against the transfer, we are against the half-baked process and that we do not have a solution," he insisted. However, he considers that "the current process will show that this is excessively expensive, and that the plant must be built in Ibiza and we will eat our own shit".

MÉS per Mallorca demands that the operation be stopped

The operation has also been criticized by the left. The spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca on the Council, Catalina Inès Perelló, has demanded that the PP stop the operation. "It is very serious that on the first day the transfer begins with security problems," she lamented at a press conference.

Perelló made this criticism in reference to the fact that the Maritime Captaincy immobilized the ship several hours before the transfer began due to safety problems. According to the island councilor, the president of the Council, Llorenç Galmés, must "explain what happened and publish all the technical reports". "Solidarity between islands does not consist of transferring a problem from one place to another, of taking waste to Mallorca and for Mallorcans to eat the waste from other islands," he lamented. Perelló also pointed out that the 10% reduction in the waste tax for Mallorca residents that was announced as compensation for the transfer has not yet been approved. "We have not yet seen the signed agreement," he lamented.

"We do not want to be the cesspool of Ibiza"

The PSIB spokespersons in Mallorca and Palma, Catalina Cladera and Xisco Dalmau, have called for the provisional suspension of the pilot plan until adequate safety measures are guaranteed. "We don't want to be Ibiza's rubbish dump," said Cladera. In a press briefing a few meters from the Son Reus incinerator plant, she denounced the "lack of transparency in the process" and the lack of environmental guarantees for the operation. "There have been a lack of controls and reports regarding this issue," she insisted.

Dalmau has regretted the impact of the transfer on the residents of Palma who will see "trucks with waste passing in front of their homes." Thus, he has requested that a monitoring commission with the neighbors and civic and social entities inform them of the process.