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.
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That looks like construction waste, not tourist waste.
It would help if the icon signs on the bins were more clear. I asked a man who was picking up the rubbish the other day .. there is a duck sign on the bin and other icon pictures that are not at all clear. The final conclusion from the bin man was that he also agreed it was not clear on the bins where to recycle and I said if you do not know then how could a tourist know !!!
It is very probable that the majority of tourists who come here are from countries with better recycling systems than here. Germany and Britain being two for example. There are no signs in German or English on any of the recycling bins but there are faded illustrations as well as Catalan and Spanish. It's not hard to work out but when it comes to recycling, in my experience, lazy will win unless it's mindlessly easy to do. It's not here, yet. Q. Where does metal go? As in tin cans. I use the envasos/yellow bin, as a best guess. But it doesn't indicate or make it clear (or easy) where at all. Case in point.