The alternative to incinerator in Gipuzkoa: "Waste can be reduced to 50,000 tons very easily"
- The Anti-Incinerator Movement has extended its proposal to implement, in the short term, a “healthier and cheaper alternative” to the Zubieta incinerator. On March 25, a demonstration was held in San Sebastian.
At a press conference in San Sebastián on Thursday morning, members of the Anti-Incinerator Movement presented an alternative for the proper management of waste in Gipuzkoa. According to them, although the Zubieta incinerator is designed to burn 200,000 tons of garbage, it would be possible in the short term and “very easily” to reduce the amount of waste generated in Gipuzkoa to 50,000 tons per year.
To do this, it would be enough to recycle more than 70% of what is currently done in many municipalities and not to generate more than 80 kilos of rejus per year per Gipuzkoa: “It is not acceptable for some to generate under 50 kilos per person and for other municipalities to generate 250 or 300 kilos. “It’s not logical, it’s not fair,” he said.
The movement believes that the key to reaching these figures is for the administration to make facilities available to the citizen and to establish fair tariffs based on the waste generated. They consider it urgent, for example, to improve the existing infrastructures for the treatment of organic in the territory and to create new ones, as well as to place the responsibility for the recycling of light packaging on the producers who produce the packaging.
The presented alternative would include the design of a Biological Mechanical Treatment (BMT) plant adapted to different situations, as did the foral government of the previous legislature: “You have to put it back on the table,” they say. According to them, these 50,000 tons of rejects that would reach TMB can be reduced to 25,000 after treatment. This solution would be much cheaper: Cost of 70 million euros, while only the construction of the Puentes incinerator will cost 212 million euros.
The next step would be to collect the final rejection in inert landfills, but this is also to minimize the rainfall. They explain that in Europe there are large regions such as Gipuzkoa – like Treviso in Italy – that are working to move from 50 kilos of rejection to 10 kilos in a period of eight years. Collaboration with these tip regions has been proposed since the Anti-Cremation Movement.
M-25: demonstration in San Sebastian
The Anti-Incinerator Movement has called for a demonstration on Saturday 25 March in San Sebastián under the slogan “There is an alternative”. Taking into account the data provided in the press conference, they want to bring together citizens and agents who believe that another waste management is possible with a great mobilization. The demonstration will depart at 5:00 p.m. from the Anoeta stadium area and will end at the Boulevard. More details about the mobilization will be released next week.
The City Hall of Donostia-San Sebastián announced at last Thursday’s plenary session that it will increase the waste rate by 26.5% from January 2025, claiming that Waste Law 7/2022 obliges this. Eguzki, for its part, has denounced that the law only applies in terms of costs,... [+]
Recently, the UPV/EHU organised a series of summer courses to address the issue of climate change. The Environment Minister, Asensio, took advantage of the courses to highlight the incinerator’s positive contribution to climate change, which is surprising, since for every tonne... [+]