Clean points to be set up for dangerous rubbish

The Balearic environment ministry will spend 14.4 million euros in setting up a network of so-called ‘clean points' where bulky or dangerous objects not suitable for selective collection can be dumped. There will be 30 such points in Majorca, four in Minorca, three in Ibiza and one in Formentera. Details of the scheme were announced yesterday by minister Margalida Rosselló and the director general for environmental quality Nicolau Barceló, who said the project is new in the Balearics but has been successfully tested in 200 spots in Catalonia. In addition to old domestic appliances, these clean points can also be used for fluorescent lighting, tins of paint, dissolvents, medicines, and batteries. They will be operated by town and village councils and funded through the tourist tax or the European Union. Unlike the ‘green points' (bottle and paper banks) which are open and often become rubbish tips, the clean points will be enclosed, although access will be free. Rossello said that they were for rubbish between regular urban waste and dangerous rubbish which do not have a specific space assigned for them.