The mayor of Orihuela, Emilio Bascuñana, said on Wednesday that he is “ready to collaborate” with the Consorcio de Residuos de la Vega Baja in order to provide a long overdue solution to the ineffective waste management system that operates in the region. The solution, at least provisionally, involves the establishment of two waste transfer plants and the Oriolano mayor has said that Orihuela can be one of the municipalities to host one of the plants.

“We have put forward various solutions, we have talked about sites and plans that are possible and that can be put into effect very quickly”, said the mayor who went on to criticise the dithering by the Waste Consortium and the Generalitat in finding a solution. “It’s in your hands, do it now,” he demanded.

“A transfer plant is essential because the service has become expensive and inefficient. We have to make some very long journeys, we have to spend much more time moving the waste and we use far more fuel and we pollute more. We are waiting month after month to find a solution to this long overdue problem.”

Bascuñana did not elaborate on the site proposed to host the transfer plant but said that he had a number in mind

At the meeting of the Consortium the introduction of a mobile Ecoparque was announced that will travel throughout the region with the intention of reducing the problem of waste in the Vega Baja. The installation, financed by the Conselleria, will cost around 150,000 euros.

Mobile Ecoparks are trucks with a trailer into which several types of waste, usually of a hazardous nature, can be deposited.

The types of waste collected in these ecoparks would usually comprise of: Batteries, Fluorescent lighting, Aerosols, Oils, paint and soforth.

To be able to cover all Orihuela Costa’s urbanizations, a day of the month has been assigned for each place, which will be the same month after month.