Last week, there was a report in the Bulletin which quoted figures given by the environmentalists GOB in respect of plastic waste: one million containers contaminating the Balearics each day and 459 kilos of plastic waste produced annually per person in Majorca.
These same figures were produced at a conference on Friday. Held at La Caixa Foundation, its theme was European strategy for plastics and waste. Despite these numbers, the director of the Rezero Foundation for the prevention of waste, Maria Rosa García, praised Balearic efforts for waste reduction and recycling and pointed to the pioneering character of legislation on waste and climate change that is currently making its way through parliament.
Jordi Pietx, manager of environmental organisation Ecoembes in Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearics, highlighted the fact that recycling in the Balearics has increased by ten per cent in each of the past three years. And this was "despite tourism activity". He pointed to the need to involve tourists in waste reduction and recycling. "They generate waste and should be aware that they should contribute to its reduction."
Pietx looked to a future in which obligatory recycling is combined with developments in packaging that has totally recyclable material. García said that the objective should be for no product to be on the market which isn't recoverable in some way.
Others who took part in the conference included Rafael Guinea, the managing director of Tirme, the company which has responsibility for recycling in the Balearics; Joanna Drake, deputy director general for the environment at the European Commission; and Sebastià Sansó, the Balearic government's director general for waste.