Fifty-two per cent of the illegally dumped rubbish is from neighbouring villages. | G. VICENS

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Felanitx town hall says that the municipality is suffering from "rubbish tourism", by which it means that people from other municipalities are going to Felanitx in order to dump waste.

Most of this rubbish is being left by containers in rural areas of the municipality. In this sense it differs from fly-tipping of waste that is just dumped anywhere, but the consequences are the same - the town hall has to collect it and people who leave mounds of rubbish outside containers are liable to fines.

The town hall's green patrol has identified some 300 people who were responsible for this rubbish. At least half of them were from other municipalities, mainly Porreres and Santanyi but also Campos and Manacor. This patrol service was set up at the start of August in order to control nine container sites and to also monitor fly-tipping. There has been evidence of the latter in isolated rural areas, but most of the rubbish has been by the containers.

This is typically heavy waste, such as that from tree pruning and building work. Rather than resort straightaway to issuing fines, the town hall been able to contact those who were responsible. They were told that if they removed the waste, they wouldn't be fined. If they repeat the offences, the town hall stresses, then they will be fined.