The ongoing row over the planned movement of ash waste by the waste-treatment company Tirme from Alcúdia's power station to landfill in Santa Margalida has taken a new turn, the Council of Mallorca's environment councillor saying that Endesa (which operates the power station and which is also a major shareholder in Tirme) has found a way of avoiding this. The company has, however, disassociated itself from this statement. Santa Margalida town hall continues to believe that the ultimate purpose of authorisation to use landfill is to shift ash from the burning of waste imports at Son Reus.
See more: Ultima Hora
Showing posts with label Tirme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tirme. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Friday, October 19, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Santa Margalida opposes ash waste deposits
Santa Margalida town hall has objected to a decision of the Council of Mallorca to permit Tirme, the company which has the concession to treat waste on the island, to transport ash and other waste from Alcúdia's power station to landfill in the town. Mayor Miguel Cifre has suggested that action would be taken to prevent trucks getting to the landfill site.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Friday, September 14, 2012
The Rubbish Dump Of Europe
On the scale of rubbish ideas, the one by which Europe's rubbish will be shipped into Puerto Alcúdia for incineration at Son Reus in Palma is one of the more rubbish you are likely to come across. This, at any rate, is how the approval by the Council of Mallorca to permit the importing of combustible waste from other countries is being styled and is being styled, moreover, with a rare show of local political unity, Alcúdia's Partido Popular mayor having been on the phone to the environment councillor to tell her to forget the whole idea and politicians from parties to the left having waded in with their own objections.
The first question that came to mind when this was all first being announced was not to do with whether it was right or wrong to bring this rubbish to Mallorca but why on earth it was going to be shipped into Alcúdia. Palma has a ruddy great port that is much closer to Son Reus, so wouldn't it make more sense for the rubbish to be offloaded in Palma? Pere Malondra, leader of PSOE in Alcúdia, has implied that it would cause more of a fuss in Palma because there are that many more people to make a fuss. He may well be right. The feeling is that Alcúdia's being kicked around.
There again, Alcúdia is both an industrial and a passenger port, though there is a legitimate issue as to whether the industrial element should be expanded when Alcúdia already receives gas and coal for the butane plant and the power station and when it is also a port for the export of material (especially wood) for recycling on the mainland and which has a habit of being piled up and becoming an eyesore in August because mainland plants reduce operations on account of holidays, so causing a backlog (so to speak) in the shipping of the woody refuse.
The logistics of transporting the waste aside, the rhetoric has gone into overdrive. Mallorca will be the rubbish dump of Europe. It will be environmental and economic suicide. Less emotional has been Mayor Terrassa's observation that the waste doesn't fit with the tourism image of Alcúdia. Which is true, but equally nor do the rotting old power station (absurdly supposed to be partially preserved as it represents industrial heritage) and the coal trucks that shuttle between the port and the current power station.
As there seems to be no intention to import the waste during the summer, the tourism argument loses some strength. Malondra has asked, though, whether what is wanted is the promotion of tourism to tackle seasonality or the importing of waste. Which is a fair point, or would be if one could be convinced that something was genuinely being done to tackle the absence of tourism out of season.
There are, as is the norm with Mallorca's politicians, some pretty odd things being said about the waste import. María Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, has come out with a belter. She has observed that in Germany there are treatment plants which take waste from other countries, as would be the case at Son Reus, and that the Germans who come to Mallorca would know that this is perfectly normal. Erm, yes, María, German tourists and indeed tourists from other countries might know that it is normal to treat waste in their own countries but it doesn't follow that they would consider it normal as a backdrop to their holidays on what the Germans have long insisted on calling the "paradise island".
There is undoubtedly a disconnect between Mallorca, the paradise island, and Mallorca, a place with industry. It does seem incongruous that there should be an enormous and expensive waste-treatment plant on the paradise tourist island, but something has to be done with waste even on a paradise island.
It is the scale of the waste treatment, however, that goes to explain why Mallorca is about to become the recipient of some European rubbish. Tirme, the company which is owned by among others Endesa and which has the concession (a monopoly one) on waste treatment until 2041, has invested vast sums in incineration at Son Reus. This investment has placed its activities under the environmental-watchdog microscope. GOB, for example, has accused Tirme of concentrating on incineration instead of recycling. Friends Of The Earth say that its capacity for incineration exceeds the level of waste that is generated on Mallorca.
María Salom has pointed out that Tirme was given the go-ahead by the previous (non-PP) administration to invest some 300 million euros in new incineration plant, an investment, the environmentalists would argue, that was unnecessary. But having ploughed the investment in, Tirme needs its payback. According to Salom, Tirme has been seeking an increase of 50% in its charges for waste treatment. These charges filter down to the town halls and ultimately to taxpayers. An alternative - the only alternative, says Salom - is the import of waste and payments from other countries which will mean that Tirme doesn't have to impose its increase.
But is Salom entirely accurate in her reference to the previous administration? The person who she says gave final authorisation for work on the new incinerator was Marilena Tugores of Els Verds (the Greens), and she said so in an interview with the Mallorcadiario website on 8 September. Yet Tugores only assumed the role of environment councillor in February 2010. It may have fallen to the Greens to oversee the incinerator coming on-stream (purely because someone had to step in when all politicians from the discredited Unió Mallorquina were booted out of positions), but the Bloc, which includes the Greens, and PSOE's Francina Armengol, former president of the Council of Mallorca, have made it clear that it was the Matas PP government at the fag end of its administration in 2007 which had authorised the incinerator, the investment and the extension of Tirme's contract to 2041.
These contradictory versions only add to the political arguments that the importing of waste is engendering. In Alcúdia, the arguments are primarily to do with tourism, but they go very much wider and raise other questions, such as why did Tirme invest in new incineration facilities if they weren't really necessary.
The new plant is said to be one of the most advanced in Europe and the treatment of the waste will not, says the present environment councillor, Catalina Soler, smell or be dirty. However, ecologists argue that incineration, while it reduces the amount of waste, leaves contaminants that are harmful to humans, animals and vegetation. The Balearics association for licensed environmental scientists believes that the import should not be an option for an island with a "fragile ecosystem".
The import is, therefore, raising once more the whole issue of how Mallorca should deal with waste from whatever source. Tirme has invested in incineration, one imagines, as it believes that it is a cheaper option than recycling, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Tirme is right. Moreover, it removes waste, unlike landfill, and can generate some energy. But environmentalist groups like GOB would maintain that Tirme devotes far too little of its own energies on recycling, which is part of its obligations. By concentrating on incineration and making massive investment that was arguably unnecessary, it has required a means of getting a payback - the import of waste.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The first question that came to mind when this was all first being announced was not to do with whether it was right or wrong to bring this rubbish to Mallorca but why on earth it was going to be shipped into Alcúdia. Palma has a ruddy great port that is much closer to Son Reus, so wouldn't it make more sense for the rubbish to be offloaded in Palma? Pere Malondra, leader of PSOE in Alcúdia, has implied that it would cause more of a fuss in Palma because there are that many more people to make a fuss. He may well be right. The feeling is that Alcúdia's being kicked around.
There again, Alcúdia is both an industrial and a passenger port, though there is a legitimate issue as to whether the industrial element should be expanded when Alcúdia already receives gas and coal for the butane plant and the power station and when it is also a port for the export of material (especially wood) for recycling on the mainland and which has a habit of being piled up and becoming an eyesore in August because mainland plants reduce operations on account of holidays, so causing a backlog (so to speak) in the shipping of the woody refuse.
The logistics of transporting the waste aside, the rhetoric has gone into overdrive. Mallorca will be the rubbish dump of Europe. It will be environmental and economic suicide. Less emotional has been Mayor Terrassa's observation that the waste doesn't fit with the tourism image of Alcúdia. Which is true, but equally nor do the rotting old power station (absurdly supposed to be partially preserved as it represents industrial heritage) and the coal trucks that shuttle between the port and the current power station.
As there seems to be no intention to import the waste during the summer, the tourism argument loses some strength. Malondra has asked, though, whether what is wanted is the promotion of tourism to tackle seasonality or the importing of waste. Which is a fair point, or would be if one could be convinced that something was genuinely being done to tackle the absence of tourism out of season.
There are, as is the norm with Mallorca's politicians, some pretty odd things being said about the waste import. María Salom, the president of the Council of Mallorca, has come out with a belter. She has observed that in Germany there are treatment plants which take waste from other countries, as would be the case at Son Reus, and that the Germans who come to Mallorca would know that this is perfectly normal. Erm, yes, María, German tourists and indeed tourists from other countries might know that it is normal to treat waste in their own countries but it doesn't follow that they would consider it normal as a backdrop to their holidays on what the Germans have long insisted on calling the "paradise island".
There is undoubtedly a disconnect between Mallorca, the paradise island, and Mallorca, a place with industry. It does seem incongruous that there should be an enormous and expensive waste-treatment plant on the paradise tourist island, but something has to be done with waste even on a paradise island.
It is the scale of the waste treatment, however, that goes to explain why Mallorca is about to become the recipient of some European rubbish. Tirme, the company which is owned by among others Endesa and which has the concession (a monopoly one) on waste treatment until 2041, has invested vast sums in incineration at Son Reus. This investment has placed its activities under the environmental-watchdog microscope. GOB, for example, has accused Tirme of concentrating on incineration instead of recycling. Friends Of The Earth say that its capacity for incineration exceeds the level of waste that is generated on Mallorca.
María Salom has pointed out that Tirme was given the go-ahead by the previous (non-PP) administration to invest some 300 million euros in new incineration plant, an investment, the environmentalists would argue, that was unnecessary. But having ploughed the investment in, Tirme needs its payback. According to Salom, Tirme has been seeking an increase of 50% in its charges for waste treatment. These charges filter down to the town halls and ultimately to taxpayers. An alternative - the only alternative, says Salom - is the import of waste and payments from other countries which will mean that Tirme doesn't have to impose its increase.
But is Salom entirely accurate in her reference to the previous administration? The person who she says gave final authorisation for work on the new incinerator was Marilena Tugores of Els Verds (the Greens), and she said so in an interview with the Mallorcadiario website on 8 September. Yet Tugores only assumed the role of environment councillor in February 2010. It may have fallen to the Greens to oversee the incinerator coming on-stream (purely because someone had to step in when all politicians from the discredited Unió Mallorquina were booted out of positions), but the Bloc, which includes the Greens, and PSOE's Francina Armengol, former president of the Council of Mallorca, have made it clear that it was the Matas PP government at the fag end of its administration in 2007 which had authorised the incinerator, the investment and the extension of Tirme's contract to 2041.
These contradictory versions only add to the political arguments that the importing of waste is engendering. In Alcúdia, the arguments are primarily to do with tourism, but they go very much wider and raise other questions, such as why did Tirme invest in new incineration facilities if they weren't really necessary.
The new plant is said to be one of the most advanced in Europe and the treatment of the waste will not, says the present environment councillor, Catalina Soler, smell or be dirty. However, ecologists argue that incineration, while it reduces the amount of waste, leaves contaminants that are harmful to humans, animals and vegetation. The Balearics association for licensed environmental scientists believes that the import should not be an option for an island with a "fragile ecosystem".
The import is, therefore, raising once more the whole issue of how Mallorca should deal with waste from whatever source. Tirme has invested in incineration, one imagines, as it believes that it is a cheaper option than recycling, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Tirme is right. Moreover, it removes waste, unlike landfill, and can generate some energy. But environmentalist groups like GOB would maintain that Tirme devotes far too little of its own energies on recycling, which is part of its obligations. By concentrating on incineration and making massive investment that was arguably unnecessary, it has required a means of getting a payback - the import of waste.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, November 25, 2011
Going To Waste
Between the two town halls of Alcúdia and Sa Pobla, the company Tirme, which provides rubbish-treatment services on Mallorca, is owed in the region of 4.6 million euros. The amount is divided roughly evenly between the two administrations, a difference lying with how much interest they both owe (Alcúdia more than Sa Pobla).
This is not the first time that Tirme has gone in pursuit of outstanding debts from town halls. At the end of May, Inca got a demand for not far off two million. Just one strange aspect of the non-payments is that they relate to the period from 2008, in the case of Alcúdia, and from 2009 where Sa Pobla is concerned. How many other town halls are similarly in debt to Tirme? And if there are others, but even if not, how does a company operate when it is not being paid such vast sums?
Alcúdia and Sa Pobla are both negotiating payment terms, and the respective administrations are of course blaming the previous administrations. Which seems fair enough, but, just as one wonders how Tirme copes with not being paid, one wonders how it is that town halls can apparently just not bother paying. Sa Pobla is also in for about 1.35 million to three other service providers, including the rubbish collectors.
One gets the impression that the whole business world in Mallorca - that which has anything to do with the town halls or other public bodies - is surviving on the promise that they might one day actually get paid. But promises don't amount to a great deal and they certainly don't amount to cash flow or reassurances to lenders, if they are applicable.
Tirme, though, isn't quite like other businesses. Most would find 4.6 million plus the couple of million from Inca and whatever else might be outstanding rather too much debt to bear. Tirme doesn't. Or doesn't appear to. This may be because of who owns it - Endesa, Iberdrola, Urbaser and FCC. Tirme is also a monopoly, and its concession for waste treatment lasts until 2041.
Tirme's monopoly position is understandable in that its operations do demand heavy investment, so it has every right to be able to expect to have a period in which it can make a return on its investment. But not everyone is happy with this monopoly nor with how Tirme prioritises its investment and its operations.
A key part of Tirme's remit is recycling. Mention the R word and you can be sure that one organisation will prick its ears up: GOB, the environmental pressure group. In August, GOB issued a statement attacking Tirme for what it claimed was the company's concentration on incineration as opposed to recycling. GOB maintained that recycling plants were operating well below capacity, while the ovens were going full pelt in optimising as swiftly as possible the investment on incinerators at the Son Reus plant in Palma. Moreover, reckoned GOB, the incineration was allowing for the generation of electricity that was being commercialised.
GOB has accused Tirme of engaging in misleading marketing where its operations are concerned and has accused the Council of Mallorca, which, and truly bizarrely, has managed to extract a reduction in the cost of waste treatment for 2012 of slightly less than two centimos, of complicity.
But then, the story of waste management and treatment is far from straightforward; you wouldn't expect it to be, because nothing ever is in Mallorca.
In January this year, the anti-corruption prosecutors embarked upon the so-called "Operación Cloaca". This had to with allegations of false accounting centred on waste management operations sanctioned by the Council of Mallorca. Of those detained at the time, and I would make it perfectly clear that Tirme was not implicated in the Cloaca investigation, was an executive with FCC-Lumsa, one of the companies with a concession for recycling collection; FCC, which is a shareholder in Tirme.
Cloaca highlighted the dual system of waste collection (door to door as well as from green points) which had resulted in effect in payment for recycling doubling. Cloaca also revealed that town halls had been pressurised by an individual at the Council of Mallorca into adopting this dual system.
What Cloaca also highlighted was the sheer complexity of arrangements for waste management on Mallorca. Perhaps town halls simply don't understand what it is they are meant to be paying for. Now, though, Alcúdia and Sa Pobla accept that they have to pay Tirme. But you wonder how many other town halls owe the company and whether the reason for non-payment has been more than just an inability to pay.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This is not the first time that Tirme has gone in pursuit of outstanding debts from town halls. At the end of May, Inca got a demand for not far off two million. Just one strange aspect of the non-payments is that they relate to the period from 2008, in the case of Alcúdia, and from 2009 where Sa Pobla is concerned. How many other town halls are similarly in debt to Tirme? And if there are others, but even if not, how does a company operate when it is not being paid such vast sums?
Alcúdia and Sa Pobla are both negotiating payment terms, and the respective administrations are of course blaming the previous administrations. Which seems fair enough, but, just as one wonders how Tirme copes with not being paid, one wonders how it is that town halls can apparently just not bother paying. Sa Pobla is also in for about 1.35 million to three other service providers, including the rubbish collectors.
One gets the impression that the whole business world in Mallorca - that which has anything to do with the town halls or other public bodies - is surviving on the promise that they might one day actually get paid. But promises don't amount to a great deal and they certainly don't amount to cash flow or reassurances to lenders, if they are applicable.
Tirme, though, isn't quite like other businesses. Most would find 4.6 million plus the couple of million from Inca and whatever else might be outstanding rather too much debt to bear. Tirme doesn't. Or doesn't appear to. This may be because of who owns it - Endesa, Iberdrola, Urbaser and FCC. Tirme is also a monopoly, and its concession for waste treatment lasts until 2041.
Tirme's monopoly position is understandable in that its operations do demand heavy investment, so it has every right to be able to expect to have a period in which it can make a return on its investment. But not everyone is happy with this monopoly nor with how Tirme prioritises its investment and its operations.
A key part of Tirme's remit is recycling. Mention the R word and you can be sure that one organisation will prick its ears up: GOB, the environmental pressure group. In August, GOB issued a statement attacking Tirme for what it claimed was the company's concentration on incineration as opposed to recycling. GOB maintained that recycling plants were operating well below capacity, while the ovens were going full pelt in optimising as swiftly as possible the investment on incinerators at the Son Reus plant in Palma. Moreover, reckoned GOB, the incineration was allowing for the generation of electricity that was being commercialised.
GOB has accused Tirme of engaging in misleading marketing where its operations are concerned and has accused the Council of Mallorca, which, and truly bizarrely, has managed to extract a reduction in the cost of waste treatment for 2012 of slightly less than two centimos, of complicity.
But then, the story of waste management and treatment is far from straightforward; you wouldn't expect it to be, because nothing ever is in Mallorca.
In January this year, the anti-corruption prosecutors embarked upon the so-called "Operación Cloaca". This had to with allegations of false accounting centred on waste management operations sanctioned by the Council of Mallorca. Of those detained at the time, and I would make it perfectly clear that Tirme was not implicated in the Cloaca investigation, was an executive with FCC-Lumsa, one of the companies with a concession for recycling collection; FCC, which is a shareholder in Tirme.
Cloaca highlighted the dual system of waste collection (door to door as well as from green points) which had resulted in effect in payment for recycling doubling. Cloaca also revealed that town halls had been pressurised by an individual at the Council of Mallorca into adopting this dual system.
What Cloaca also highlighted was the sheer complexity of arrangements for waste management on Mallorca. Perhaps town halls simply don't understand what it is they are meant to be paying for. Now, though, Alcúdia and Sa Pobla accept that they have to pay Tirme. But you wonder how many other town halls owe the company and whether the reason for non-payment has been more than just an inability to pay.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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