The Vega Baja's trash pushes the Alicante landfill to the limit

The lack of an agreement on where to locate a waste treatment plant in the region (in these cases, it is a consortium of several municipalities) has literally brought the trash to the provincial capital. The Alicante Waste Treatment Center (Cetra), located in the Fontcalent area, annually treats 50,000 tons from the south of the province, 25% of the total processed, according to data provided by the Alicante City Council.

An amount that has pushed the Alicante plant "almost to the limit", according to Manuel Villar, councilor for the Environment and spokesperson for the Local Government Board, "but within the permitted capacity" of 200,000 tons annually, which is what is currently processed.

Nevertheless, Alicante takes charge and will continue to do so "out of solidarity" with the rest of the province. "We are the provincial capital and we must be supportive of the rest," Villar said.

The lack of an agreement on where to locate a landfill in Vega Baja (no municipality wanted it despite being paid per ton treated due to odors and environmental problems caused by these facilities) led the Valencian Generalitat, with Compromís heading up the Department of Environment, to order that waste be taken to Alicante. "We had to stand firm because they still wanted to bring us more", Villar has expressed, so they stayed at those 50,000 tons per year that now arrive.

The Alicante City Council will invest 17 million euros over the next two years in machinery and facilities at its waste treatment plant. The latest investment amounts to 2.2 million euros.

The Alicante City Council has provided this data following a complaint filed with Prosecutor's Office by Coordinadora Alicante Limpia (CAL) for a possible environmental crime at landfill. The Public Ministry has accepted the complaint and opened an investigation.