The councils of Mallorca and the Pitiusas Islands want to pay for manure transport with the ecotax

PalmThe presidents of the Ibiza and Formentera councils announced this Wednesday that they will request the use of funds from the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS)—formerly known as the ecotax—to cover the costs of transporting waste from the Pitiusas Islands to the TIRME plant in Mallorca, as part of a waste management pilot program. According to estimates, approximately 91% of the waste will come from Ibiza and 9% from Formentera, and the annual costs of the pilot program are estimated at around €10 million. During the summer, the population of Ibiza doubles and that of Formentera triples, which proportionally increases waste generation. Council officials believe it makes sense for the tourism sector to contribute, through the ITS, to solving this shared problem.

Regarding the overall financing of the project, the total cost of transferring waste from Ibiza to Mallorca has been estimated at around 50 million euros. As announced at the time by the institutions responsible for the initiative, this amount was to be provided by the Government of the Balearic Islands to the Council of Mallorca, which, as the entity responsible for managing the island's waste, assumes the environmental costs of the treatment. However, the Council of Mallorca's 2026 budget, as reported by ARA Baleares, does not include this item, since at the time of its preparation there was no full legal basis to carry out the operation, although sources within the institution assure that they are continuing to work to secure the funds from the Government.

Unsustainable

However, the announcement has been met with strong criticism from MÉS per Mallorca. The eco-sovereignist party considers it especially serious that funds are being allocated to transferring waste between islands, an operation that, according to them, is unsustainable and increases the environmental footprint. Catalina Inés Perelló, spokesperson for MÉS per Mallorca in the Consell (Island Council), stated that using the ITS (Tax on Sustainable Use) to move waste is not sustainability, but rather the institutionalization of a problem instead of solving it, while also being a perverse use of a tax that should serve to reduce impacts, not to redistribute them. Perelló also criticized the PP's (People's Party) lack of a plan and responsibility and warned that this short-term solution exacerbates the environmental problem in the long term. The party points out that, according to European regulations, waste treatment is not eligible for subsidies and that public resources should be allocated to policies of prevention, recycling, and selective collection.

Additionally, MÁS per Mallorca has denounced the silence of the president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, whom they accuse of political subservience to the PP's decisions, and they demand a halt to this operation to prevent a covert change in the waste management model and the use of the ITS (Island Transport Authority). According to the party, each island should be responsible for the waste it generates, as Mallorca has done, and public resources should be dedicated to reducing waste and moving towards a sustainable model, instead of transferring the problem from one island to another.

Criticism has also come from environmental groups, especially GEN-GOB of Ibiza and GOB of Mallorca. Both organizations consider it a failure of environmental policy to have to end up sending the Pitiusas Islands' waste by sea to Mallorca. According to Juan Carlos Palermo, president of GEN-GOB, "It's incredible that there is so little planning and capacity on the part of politicians when it comes to tackling such a sensitive and important issue. There is no waste management plan in Ibiza, which is the instrument that allows us to organize ourselves as a society to deal with what we generate." Ibiza spokesperson.