Ibiza will begin sending manure to Mallorca in April

PalmNext April, the pilot program to transfer waste from Ibiza to the Son Reus incineration plant in Palma is finally scheduled to begin, after months of political and legal debate on how to address the manure management crisis on the Pitiusas Islands. The Ibiza Council announced this Friday that the trial will cost 10 million euros and will involve the transfer of approximately 30,000 tons of waste, while the island's five municipalities have just finalized emergency plans to reduce manure generation. The stated objective is to extend the lifespan of the Ca na Putxa landfill in Santa Eulària, which was nearing capacity and had become a central point of contention in the waste management debate in the Pitiusas Islands. This pilot project comes after a complex and controversial political and legal process. The Balearic Islands Government had to approve a plan at the end of 2025. Decree law This decree provides legal cover for the transfer of manure between islands, after a previous decree, intended to include the transfer within the so-called Strategic Interest Programs, was rejected by Parliament. This decree also allocates €50 million from the Balearic Government to compensate the Consell de Mallorca for managing the waste it receives and allows the Consell to reduce its waste collection fee by up to 10% by 2026, as explained by the island institution.

But the initiative has also been marked by controversy and reservations. Numerous [issues] have arisen criticisms from environmental organizations Like the GOB (Balearic Ornithological Group), which demanded all documentation regarding the transfer, considering the potential massive import of waste to be incinerated in Son Reus a "serious environmental and community threat." The GOB and other groups maintain that transporting manure from one island to another for burning goes against the EU's waste management hierarchy (which prioritizes reduction, reuse, and recycling) and that Mallorca already suffers environmental impacts from its own plant and the resulting ash landfill. Before the legal framework was established, the Consell d'Eivissa (Island Council of Ibiza) warned that the only short-term solution for valorizing the Pitiusas Islands' waste was the export of manure to Mallorca, as the Ca na Putxa landfill was reaching its capacity and there were no immediate alternatives for internal treatment. This legal obstacle delayed the start of the pilot program, which was scheduled to begin in October 2025, although it would now be reactivated under the new regulatory framework. The controversy has brought to light other tensions surrounding waste management, as Ibiza lacks a proper island master plan, a point the GEN-GOB party has repeatedly lamented. Their spokesperson, Juan Carlos Palermo, maintains that "these solutions cannot be improvised without addressing the real problem: waste management in Ibiza."

All of this places the operation in the middle of a broad debate about whether the relocation encourages a management model that prioritizes incineration and the movement of waste by sea and land, or whether, instead, there should be a focus on deeper reduction and circular economy policies that avoid dependence on the capacity of another territory.