Tenerife Non-Profit Tackles Ocean Waste, Converts Plastic to Hydrogen

Tenerife produces a huge amount of waste – over 1,800 tons every day, or about 670,000 tons a year. This is a big problem for an island with limited ways to process and manage it all.

On land, local authorities manage waste collection using public services, trucks, cleaners, and recycling centers. But some of this waste doesn't get collected; it ends up in the ocean. Out at sea, there are no regular collection routes, bins, or council workers. So, who cleans the ocean?

Since 2019, Innoceana, a non-profit group dedicated to marine conservation, has removed more than five tons of rubbish from the sea around the south of Tenerife.

Most of this is plastic, which builds up on beaches, the seabed, and in protected marine areas.

They work along the coast from Guía de Isora to Arico. One key area is Porís beach, known as one of Europe's most polluted beaches with tiny plastic pieces (microplastics).

"We've pulled out tires, boat batteries, and even a motorcycle from underwater," says Carlos Mallo, Innoceana's founder. He's also a Goldman Prize winner, which is seen as the top global award for environmental work.

Innoceana carries out two to three cleanups every month. These are split into three types: coastal (on beaches), underwater, and offshore (further out at sea).

On beaches, volunteers gather larger plastic items, microplastics, and other rubbish. They use special sieves to sift through the sand and find tiny pieces that are hard to see. Underwater cleanups need more planning. Some waste has been on the seabed for so long that it creates small habitats, or 'biotopes'. "In these spots, algae grow, and animals like seahorses appear. This means we have to be very careful not to disturb the ecosystem," Mallo explains. For offshore cleanups, teams go out in small boats, especially in the Teno-Rasca Special Area of Conservation (SAC), looking for floating piles of rubbish, often called "trash tongues."

Conditions change a lot. Some days, they find no rubbish, while on others, there's more than they can collect. A rise in sargassum (a type of North Atlantic seaweed) has also made it harder to spot waste, as it gets mixed in with floating plastics.

"We even had to rescue a loggerhead sea turtle that was tangled in a 'ghost net' (lost fishing gear) once," the organization shared.

Since 2023, Innoceana has been part of an exciting European project called PLAS4E2. This project, under the Interreg Atlantic Area program, involves the University of Santander, the University of Bilbao, and a Dutch academic institution.

The goal of PLAS4E2 is to turn plastic waste from the ocean into hydrogen. They do this using a chemical process called pyrolysis. This involves heating the plastic to between 300 and 600 °C without any oxygen. Because there's no burning, the waste breaks down in a controlled way, producing gases, oils, and solids that can all be used for energy.

"The innovative part is using this technology on marine waste, which often contains organic matter," Mallo explains.

Innoceana's job in this project is to collect, sort, and analyze the waste to see how well it can be used to create energy.

But Innoceana does more than just remove rubbish. They use the data they collect to write reports, help with scientific research, and push for better ways to manage waste on coasts and in the sea. The problem is clear: the huge amount of waste they remove points to a deeper, systemic issue. "This is linked to how much plastic we use in hotels, cities, and towns," Mallo points out. "We all consume, and that shows up in our environment."

The effects of tourism, the huge amount of packaging we use, and poor control over waste disposal all put extra strain on the marine environment. The areas they clean often show new signs of pollution, meaning that while cleanups are vital, they aren't a final answer. "Unless we reduce how much waste we produce and improve how we manage it, we'll always be removing rubbish slower than it's created," they conclude.