Today the Governing Board of the Consell de Formentera endorsed the initial proposal to grant the Prezero company the mixed contract for waste collection services, street and beach cleaning, conservation and maintenance of green areas and operation of Formentera's civic amenities site. The proposed award of the contract for the next eight years, extendable two years, was approved for €28,233,965.12 (VAT included). Now the proposed company has ten days to submit the required documentation, which must then be approved by the Plenary of the Consell. The service is expected to start in the coming months, once administrative processing is complete and the transitional period when the company will acquire equipment and hire personnel has elapsed.

Updated service tuned to the reality of Formentera
"With the new contract we are adapting Formentera's previously obsolete waste collection and cleaning service to the island's current needs, which, in addition, will be a significant improvement for islanders and visiting tourists", said Antoni Tur, environment councillor. "The new service will also be an important step toward the objective set by Law 8/2019 on waste and contaminated soils, which determines that the weight of recyclable waste must represent 50% of the total", said Councillor Tur, who stressed that, in turn, work must be done to promote awareness and civic responsibility so that Formentera generates less waste and the waste that is generated gets put in the right places and at the established times.

New vehicles, machinery and containers
The new contract includes renewal of the vehicle fleet. The hand-blasting teams will have electric vehicles with a pressurised water cleaning system (hydro-cleaning) making it possible to immediately remove stains without mobilising specialised teams. Meanwhile, all surface containers will be renewed and made more accessible to people with reduced and/or functional mobility. It also envisions the installation of foot pedals on existing underground containers, increases collection frequencies for all categories of waste and extends container pickup of organics for regular islanders.

New machinery will be incorporated at beaches so that they can be cleaned manually and mechanically, including by removing microplastics from sand. New seaside rubbish bins will also feature more options to recycle.

Personnel and material resources have been increased to maintain green areas and clear country roads. As a new feature, a tractor equipped with a special arm will oversee mechanised weeding.

At the civic amenities site, new spaces will make it possible to prepare objects for reuse and give waste a second life. Solar panels equipped for up to 94.77 KWp will also be installed to supply the facility with energy and recharge all the vehicles and machinery included in the contract, most of which is electric.

In terms of sorted rubbish, the new contract includes pickup of waste, paper and cardboard, light packaging, glass, door-to-door collection of commercial paper and cardboard for large producers, door-to-door collection for medium and large producers of organics and door-to-door collection at pedestrian-only streets in Es Pujols. It also includes new dustbins equipped for sorted collection.

In general, increased material resources and personnel will improve the frequency of service provision, and will be adjusted to seasonality and demand.

10 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

The Office of Environment of the Consell de Formentera reports that 1,590 deadweight anchors (approximately 318 tonnes in weight) have been removed in cleaning the lake bed as part of the project regulate and recover Estany des Peix. Over the last week, three sunken vessels have been removed and, according to calculations by the company in charge of the works, about thirty deadweight anchors remain on the lake bed. Their removal will signal completion of cleanup operations. The abandoned anchors that have been removed are separated by type of waste, with concrete crushed to be reused as construction material.

The Consell continues with work to preserve Estany des Peix. The lake is being cleaned, ordered and regulated to put an end to the ecological and environmental strain to which it has been subjected in recent years.

7 March 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

In recent days the Office of Environment of the Consell de Formentera has removed four boats which had reached the coast of Formentera after being used by migrants and which had remained in difficult to access areas of S'Estufador and S'Espalmador.

While the Consell de Formentera is not responsible for cleaning these parts of the coast, work by the Office of Environment was key to finding a necessary solution in response to islanders' demands that the vessels be cleared from the coast in an effort to avoid the risks that abandoned craft represent. A specialised company was brought in to remove the remains and various waste in these areas.

Water bottles, clothes left on nearby rocks, three boats and an engine located underwater 20 metres from the shore were removed from the area of Pesqueres Altes. The remains were transported to Es Copinar, where they were hauled off by Consell de Formentera trucks. From the east coast of S'Espalmador, crews also removed a boat and bottles that had been discarded along the shore. The dive team included six professional divers, an auxiliary boat and a platform to remove the material.

In easy to access areas the Consell typically collaborates in removing boats that are then sent to be destroyed.

26 February 2023
Office of Communication
Consell de Formentera

In response to a complaint from the Association of Estany des Peix Businesses and Users' regarding approval of the initial list of assessment of anchoring applications, the Consell de Formentera wishes to highlight the fact that comments and documentation are currently under review.

The Consell laments this association's instrumentalisation of the judiciary to delay proceedings and will continue to work for the preservation and traditional uses of this space, which is part of Ses Salines Park. The appropriate authorities approved the plans to regulate anchorage at the lake to redress a situation of ecological and environmental risk. Estany des Peix is suffering under the pressure of overcrowded anchored boats and unregulated activities, including for-profit rental of recreational watercraft, which is prohibited in this protected site.

Last March, the Balearic High Court of Justice (TSJB) endorsed regulation of Estany des Peix and rejected the precautionary suspension which had been requested by the business group. The TSJB signalled that Formentera's government "is acting to defend the general and public interest, since the park's use and management protocol prohibits the boat rental activities that the appellant association intends to continue carrying out."

20 February 2023
Office of Communications
Consell de Formentera