Tenerife is on the verge of an environmental disaster due to an overflowing landfill, says the mayor of Arico.

The mayor of Arico in Tenerife, Olivia Delgado, is raising the alarm: the island's ecological complex, where waste is disposed of, is in critical condition. She believes that the waste management system is completely collapsing, and simply burying the garbage is not a solution.

As an example, she cites two fires that occurred at the landfill in April and September of this year. One of them seriously damaged the waste processing plant, which was out of operation for four months. As a result, thousands of tons of waste had to be simply buried.

"This is a sign of a disaster," says Delgado. According to her, at the landfill, garbage had to be piled 20 meters higher than planned in order to have somewhere to unload the waste while a new site was being prepared.

In an interview with a local newspaper, the mayor recalled that the government of the Canary Islands found eight violations of environmental regulations at the complex, and four of them are very serious. Therefore, she demands that the local authorities develop an action plan with clear deadlines and with the participation of Arico to correct these shortcomings. A contingency plan is also needed, like the ones companies that manage important facilities have. "It is unacceptable that after a fire, garbage is simply dumped into the disposal compartment," she emphasizes.

The mayor believes that the compensation her city receives for hosting the landfill is "insufficient." "We are allocated 877,000 euros per year, but we have to pay 426,000 euros of this amount for waste management. It turns out that we bear a double burden: both the impact of the landfill and we also pay for it. Arico solves the garbage problem of the entire island, and we must be properly compensated for this."

She also emphasizes the need to adhere to the waste management plan, which provides for compensation for the use of the territory and economic losses, because other industries suffer due to the landfill. Therefore, a study should be conducted to compensate for "all lost opportunities," in particular, the development of tourism and support for local agriculture, which suffers from plastic waste. Delgado is also concerned about the impact of the complex on the health of workers and residents: "The working conditions there are terrible, and this affects people's health. This cannot continue, it is abnormal, it harms the environment, and the regulations are not being followed. Even in the neighboring city of Granadilla, they are complaining about the stench from the complex." She calls for actively developing waste recycling and creating garbage collection points, which were planned the last time the local authorities changed. She warns that the landfill is overflowing: "If you look down from Mount El Río, the highest mountains you can see are mountains of garbage. This should not be the case." Therefore, she demands "more action and fewer words" from the local authorities.

"The ecological complex should be the lungs of Tenerife, but it is sick and needs resuscitation. If we don't save it, the island will have a big problem, which already exists, in fact. You can't just bury garbage, and Arico can't be a landfill for all of Tenerife," she concludes.

Local councilor Javier Rodríguez Medina also called the situation at the complex "dramatic" and accused the authorities of "garbage being scattered all over the territory, even where it is not allowed, which is a serious violation of environmental regulations and, possibly, even a crime against the environment."