The publication in the BOIB of the new additional provisions of the Balearic Waste Law legally consolidates the shipment of waste from Ibiza to Mallorca, but the text still does not specify key issues such as the tons to be transferred each year, the impact on garbage fees or the detailed schedule of the pilot plan. The decree establishes who decides, how it will be financed and until when this exceptional solution will be in force.
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The Govern activates the shipment of garbage from Ibiza to Mallorca after agreeing the new decree with Vox
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Defining tons, costs and logistics: the next steps after the decree allowing waste to be sent from Ibiza to Mallorca
Ca na Putxa landfill at the limit and legal framework of the relocation
The BOIB states that the useful life of the island landfill of Ibiza, in Ca na Putxa, is about to run out, a situation that empowers the Consell de Ibiza to agree in full the transfer of waste from the island to Mallorca. The legal text establishes that “the totality of the waste fraction of the residues” can be sent to the Majorcan treatment plants, so that the exit of garbage is limited to that fraction of rejection that can no longer be recovered or recycled.
In addition, the decree itself specifies that this authorization is of a temporary nature and will be in force until the approval of the island’s waste management master plan, which must establish the definitive model for the treatment of these materials. This reference directly links the measure to the situation of Ca na Putxa and to the calendar for the revision of the island’s master plan.
Who decides the shipment and for how long
The new provisions clarify which institutions have the last word on the transfer of waste between Ibiza and Mallorca. On the one hand,
The BOIB also states that the validity of this transfer scheme is maintained only until the new waste master plan of Ibiza is approved, without detailing specific deadlines for that review. Thus, the regulation configures the shipment to Mallorca as an exceptional and transitory measure, linked to the current situation of the landfill and future island planning, but without turning it into a permanent solution.
Pilot plan: concessionaire and financing by Ibiza
The decree also incorporates the obligation to carry out a pilot test of the waste transfer before the system is fully implemented, an aspect that had already been advanced in the political debate in recent weeks. According to what was published in the BOIB, the concessionaire of the waste service of Ibiza will be in charge of executing this pilot plan, once the duration has been agreed between the Consell de Ibiza and the Consell de Mallorca.
As for the financing of this initial phase, the text specifies that the pilot plan will be borne by the Consell de Ibiza, as stated in the official information. The decree does not specify whether this cost will be passed on later via taxes or other instruments, but it does make it clear that it will be the Ibizan administration that will assume the cost of the test that will allow to evaluate the operation of the transfer before its definitive application.
50 million ceiling and many pending details
The other major figure included in the BOIB is that the transport of waste between Ibiza and Mallorca will involve a maximum budget of 50 million euros over ten years, an amount that the Balearic Government will pay to the Consell de Mallorca to meet the expenses derived from this system. In this way, the regulation sets an economic ceiling and a reference period of a decade, with the Autonomous Community being in charge of transferring the funds to the Mallorcan institution.
What is still unknown
Beyond these general conditions, the decree does not detail how many tons of waste will be transferred, nor how often, nor from what exact date the pilot plan will start, elements that remain to be specified in the agreement between the two councils and in the agreements with the concessionaire and the shipping companies. Neither is it specified in the BOIB how these costs will be reflected in the garbage rates paid by users, an aspect to be defined in future political decisions and ordinances.
In short, the publication in the BOIB closes the necessary legal framework so that waste from Ibiza can travel to Mallorca and sets the main coordinates of the operation -motive, competent institutions, temporary nature, pilot test and economic limit-, but leaves for a second phase the specification of volumes, schedule, operating conditions and possible impact on the island’ s waste collection bills.
