The neighbors of Son Sardina, indignant: "It makes no sense to bring Ibiza's rubbish here"

PalmaThe neighborhoods of Son Sardina and La Garriga are in the zero zone for waste treatment in Mallorca. From the rooftops, the Son Reus incinerator plant is perfectly visible, 3.5 kilometers away in a straight line: they suffer from the odors and acidic clouds that occasionally appear in the sky. This Tuesday they have raised their voices against the plans of the Consell de Mallorca to expand the plant's production with the "waste originating from Ibiza. "From an environmental point of view, it makes no sense to have waste in Ibiza, put it in a truck, a boat, send it to the port of Palma and transport it by road all the way here," protests Joan Mateos, spokesperson for the Sa Garriga Residents' Association.

Together with a dozen neighborhood and environmental organizations, they have announced the filing of an administrative contentious appeal against the agreement reached by the two island institutions, the content of which was advanced by ARA Balears. "The transfer from Ibiza increases the impacts of incineration", explains GOB spokesperson Aina Llauger. She highlights that the master plan for waste management foresaw that, if they were not used within a certain period, two furnaces would be closed: "If we now add Ibiza's waste, its lifespan is extended". She adds that waste from Ibiza burns worse, because "Ibiza's selective collection is more deficient than ours". Furthermore, she laments that the Consell de Mallorca has lowered the environmental requirement to receive all waste in shrink-wrapped bales and now accepts bulk imports.

"They are disguising something that isn't as a pilot test"

Mateos highlights the fact that Mallorca has not set an end date for the pilot project for the transfer of waste from Ibiza. "They are disguising as a pilot project something that is not: a tender of 2.7 million euros is being made, extendable annually, up to a maximum of 24 million euros," he argues. Thus, he calls for alternatives to manage the waste from the closure of the Ibiza incinerator plant, Ca na Putxa, because it is reaching the end of its useful life. If not, the neighbours warn, this import is a precedent: the Menorca incinerator plant could also fail.

The spokesperson for the Association of Neighbours of Son Sardina, Àngela Fernández, has lamented that neither the Consell de Mallorca nor the Palma City Council have informed them about the transfer procedure. She assures that they have made requests through the transparency portal and have not received any response. She calls for a "citizen participation process" to express an opinion on the transfer and that the 50 million euros that the Government has allocated to the Consell de Mallorca to cover the expenses of the import be allocated to "door-to-door collection programs in Ibiza and Formentera".