Tenerife Boosts Recycling with New Ecoembes Waste Deal

Tenerife's governing council has agreed to join a new deal for managing household packaging waste.

This agreement, recently signed between the Canary Islands government and Ecoembes (a waste management company), updates the previous one from 2014 and brings the island's waste management in line with current rules.

Under the agreement, Ecoembes will cover all costs for transporting, sorting, and recovering packaging waste in Tenerife.

Specifically, Ecoembes will pay for:

• Transporting waste from transfer plants to sorting facilities.
• Sorting packaging at the Tenerife Environmental Complex in Arico.
• Recovering packaging from general waste.
• Shipping waste to mainland Spain or between the islands.

All of this will be at no cost to the Tenerife government.

Rosa Dávila, the island's president, highlighted that this agreement ensures the funding and organization of the entire packaging treatment process, both from recycling bins and general waste bins, without any extra cost to the local government.

This deal is crucial for boosting the circular economy, turning waste into reusable resources. It also protects the environment by preventing recyclable materials from being dumped. Current estimates suggest this new partnership will increase Tenerife's income by 3.2%, reaching €2.4 million.

Additionally, Tenerife benefits from the Ultraperipheral Region Plus (PRU) program, receiving extra payments for operational activities like transfers, sorting, and managing general waste. This payment is linked to the active population, currently amounting to €289,255 for Tenerife.

In 2024, Tenerife recycled 12,668 tons of packaging, a 2.64% increase from the previous year. Currently, the island recycles about 54% of its waste separately (the Canary Islands average). However, regulations require reaching 65% by 2025 and 75% by 2030. To achieve this, it's essential to get more people involved and improve how waste is separated.