The expected waste transfer from Ibiza to Majorca is starting to begins to outline its final roadmap. The Consell Insular de Mallorca is finalizing the bureaucratic details to start the plan so that, from 2026, the tons of garbage accumulated in Ca na Putxa can be incinerated in the Majorcan plant of Son Reus.
Last Tuesday, the Balearic Parliament has validated the decree of strategic projects, a rule that will allow to legally fit the plan. Thus, it shields the legal coverage of the transfer and configures this movement of the Ibizan garbage as an exceptional measure, with a previous pilot test and an aid of 50 million to the Consell de Mallorca.
This initiative had been left up in the air last September, when the Vox party rejected the first draft of the decree, paralyzing the technical work already started. However, after weeks of negotiation, PP and Vox have reached an agreement that allows its processing as a bill.
The unblocking of regulations has been key for the Consell de Mallorca to resume negotiations with Ibiza and speed up the formalization of the agreement between both institutions.
The plan foresees a compensation of 50 million euros, which the Balearic Government will pay to Mallorca over a period of ten years, at a rate of five million euros per year. This figure seeks to compensate the receiving island for the costs derived from the transport and incineration of waste from the Pitiusas.
A project postponed since summer
The initial objective was to launch a pilot test between October and November 2024, once the tourist season was over. In May, the Consell de Ibiza, the Consell de Mallorca and the Govern Balear reached a political pre-agreement to activate the transfer of waste, given the situation of exhaustion of the Pitiusan landfill.
The project seeks to provide an immediate solution to a problem that has been dragging on for years. Currently, Ca na Putxa receives more than 90,000 tons of garbage per year, and its storage capacity is close to the limit. The Consell de Ibiza had warned of the need to find an urgent solution to avoid an environmental crisis.
As Diario de Mallorca advanced, the Consell mallorquín is working in parallel on a 10% reduction in the municipal solid waste (MSW) tariff to compensate for the impact of the increase in volume coming from Ibiza. This adjustment will be applied once the final agreement between the parties has been formalized.
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Ibiza will promote a shock plan to reduce waste while the pilot transfer to Mallorca gets underway
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What it would be like to move garbage from Ibiza to Mallorca: the pilot plan the Consell is working on
Opposition and GOB’s frontal rejection
The operation is strongly opposed by the PSIB and Més per Mallorca. The socialist spokeswoman in the Consell, Catalina Cladera, denounced that “the transfers must be done in a minimum amount and with environmental guarantees, both in terms of incineration and mobility issues”.
Cladera also criticized the attitude of the Consell de Ibiza for not having advanced in sustainable management policies: “Let them do their homework and minimize the amounts of waste that will come”.
From Més per Mallorca, spokesperson Catalina Inés Perelló accused the Ibizan authorities of inaction: “Ibiza should have done its job. It cannot be that, as an immediate solution, we receive waste from others. They have had to look for a decree law to justify it”.
