Final decision on rubbish problem due next year

Miquel Angel Borrás, head of the Council of Majorca's environment department, said yesterday that a decision on the managment of rubbish generated in the island would be taken next year and voted for a “mixed” system which would combine rubbish tips with incineration. He was speaking at the Council of Majorca plenary session, in answer to a question from PP (Popular Party) councillor Francesc Fiol, about the possibility of opening another furnace at the incinerator plant. Borrás said that the debate on the solution to the rubbish problem could not be confined to “incinerator, yes or no,” but called for a wider analysis to provide an overall solution to the treatment of rubbish, which has increased considerably over the past few years, due to the arrival of some 60'000 new residents. He said that by the end of the year, 513'000 tons of rubbish will have been generated in the island, a figure far in excess of the 470'000 tons which the master plan on rubbish had predicted for the year 2004. In view of these figures, and if the amount of rubbish produced continues to grow at this rate, then it is obvious that the rubbish tips of EMAYA and Corral Serra will “collapse within four or five years,” he said. In order to solve this problem the head of environmental policy in Majorca said he favoured a mixed system which would combine incineration with the best use of tips, as each option on its own could not solve the problem of excess rubbish. Although he said that the decision on the matter would be taken in 2003, he favoured finding “the most environmentally correct option,” and consulting as many sectors of the population as possible. Fiol pointed out that it was necessary to take a decision on the matter as soon as possible, so that the Council would not be forced to take “emergency measures” and added that the “social majority” which Borràs was asking already existed among Majorcan residents and within the Council of Majorca itself. In relation to environmental themes, the plenary session also approved the proposed regulations for dealing with building rubble and old tyres. The Council also agreed to call on the central government to ask the European Union to make Catalan an official language in community bodies. Another of the agreements was the signing of an agreement to purchase the auditorium of Porrerres. During the session, Eduardo Puche Castillejos of the PP took the oath of office. He replaces Joan Flaquer.