Balearics, one of worst EU throw-away societies

The installation of Palma's state-of-the-art hydraulic waste disposal system will be completed on Monday, just as well considering the results of a European Union report published yesterday which revealed that the Balearics is one of the biggest throw-away communities in the Union. The report states that the Balearics and the Canaries, per capita, throw out the largest amounts of household waste per year. According to the Eurostat study, this year in the Balearics we will throw out an average of 713 kilos of wase per capita, in the Canaries the amount is as high as 833 kilos per inhabitant. Notio Aigio in Greece tops the table with some 1.053 kilos of rubbish per capita, followed by the Canaries, the Algarve in Portugal, 716 kg, Provence in the South of France, 714 kilos and then it is the Balearics in fifth place. The European Union average amount of rubbish thrown out per capita each year is 44 kilos. Needless to say, just like tourists were blamed for dirtying Palma by council sources two years ago, in a statement made by Eurostat it is likely to lead to the finger being pointed at visitors again. Eurostat said yesterday “it's a delicate task in trying to find the reasons for the large differences, on the one hand it could be because of differing waste collection and treatment programmes used by the various local authorities or on the other the reason could be economic (such as tourism).” The study also revealed that 95 per cent of waste in the Balearics is incinerated while in Valencia and Madrid, 43 per cent is recycled and 53 per cent incinerated. So, the final phase of the new automatic rubbish collection system in the old part of Palma could not have come soon enough. Municipal water board Emaya confirmed yesterday that the third phase will be in operation from Monday morning. The system however has not been introduced as smoothly as hoped. Many residents claimed they did not receive any information about how the system works and shops claim there is a lack of special chutes for industrial waste and in some cases, it is not clearly indicated which chutes are for which kind of waste.