The transfer of waste from Ibiza: details of a 24 million euro operation

PalmaMallorca will begin to receive next Thursday seven daily trucks of waste from Ibiza, five days a week, with a total of 3,000 tons of garbage each month. The pilot test for the transfer of waste from the Pitiusa island, which the island councils approved last Tuesday, will cost 24.6 million euros, as stated in the documentation of the file that ARABalears advanced. The agreement has been drawn up over a year, hidden from the opposition –it was not delivered until the Transparency Council requested it–, and it includes a reduction in the environmental criteria initially foreseen.

This operation is being launched due to the imminent closure of the Ca na Putxa landfill in Ibiza. It is a pilot plan that will last up to two years while Ibiza defines a master plan for waste management in the medium and long term. The GOB has announced that it will take it to court for alleged legal and environmental irregularities, and the residents of Son Sardina and La Garriga, the zero zone of the Son Reus incinerator, have called for mobilization against the transfer. According to the Justification Report of the collaboration agreement, it is foreseen that Ibiza may send about 97,781 tons of waste to Mallorca between June 2026 and May 2027, while Mallorca will generate 496,277; and 81,485 between June 2027 and March 2028. This represents an increase of between 14 and 16% in the waste that the Son Reus incinerator will have to manage.

The transfer operation has an estimated cost of 24,597,703.93 euros, as calculated by the Consell d’Eivissa in an official notification that is part of the file. According to the Justificatory Report of the agreement, this institution must assume the transport expenses in their entirety, while the Consell de Mallorca has no budgetary obligation in this regard. Of the total, the largest item is the 17,237,380 euros that Eivissa will pay to the Consell de Mallorca for the use of the Son Reus facilities, calculated at a rate of 114.95 euros per ton. The Consell de Mallorca also receives a subsidy from the Government of up to 50 million euros over 10 annual payments to compensate for expenses associated with the operation. In exchange for receiving waste from the neighboring island, the president of the island institution, Llorenç Galmés, announced that the waste tariff for Majorcans will be reduced by 10%.

A complication for Galmés

The transport of waste has been difficult for Galmés to swallow. However, the President of the Government, Marga Prohens, made it clear that she had no other alternative. “What do we do with Ca na Putxa? Do we build another landfill? We must aim for Islands with zero landfills. What we cannot do is say that this is a problem for Ibiza,” she said in an interview with ARABalears. However, the insular government did not sign the agreement until this week when it received confirmation that it would have the Government's subsidy and was able to announce the tariff reduction. For this reason, the Consell d’Eivissa waited days for Mallorca to make its move, even though the ship that is to begin the transfer had already been at port since the beginning of the week.

A reduction in environmental requirements

Likewise, Mallorca has had to make concessions to Ibiza during the negotiation. The final text allows for a reduction of the initially planned environmental requirement, which legally guarantees the transfer of part of the bulk waste. The legal flexibility was introduced to unblock the operation when Ibiza declared that it did not have the technical means to package all of the waste into shrink-wrapped bales, as required by the first environmental report issued by the consultancy BBAsesores. After noting in the minutes – through a clarification from the same consultancy – that this requirement was not mandatory, the door was opened to transfer part of the waste in bulk. This entails risks, as set out in the initial report: possible leaks, bad smells, and decomposition of the waste.

After ARABalears uncovered this reduction and the GOB and the residents of Son Sardina and La Garriga publicly criticized the operation, the Consell d’Eivissa committed to not making bulk waste shipments even if the final agreement shields this option in case it is necessary. What does this renunciation to send a part of the waste in bulk imply? Sources from the Consell d’Eivissa explain that, since they do not have the technical capacity to package all the waste, the portion of refuse that would have been sent in bulk, for now, will remain at the Ca na Putxa landfill.

The second vice-president and Minister of Environment, Pedro Bestard, will travel to Eivissa to supervise the first shipment of refuse, which will arrive in Mallorca in the early hours of Thursday, July 16th. A commission will also be established to monitor the execution of the pilot test, composed of representatives from both island councils and the Government. The agreement with the conditions for the transfer will be reviewed periodically.