An organic waste treatment plant for the Vega Baja area is to be built in Los Montesinos.
A motion to sign over municipal land to the Vega Baja waste management consortium was approved at a full council meeting this morning.
Consortium president Francisco Cano thanked Los Montesinos mayor José Manuel Butrón, saying this was a ‘crucial’ day because the plant will enable waste generated by the area’s 27 municipalities to be treated within the Vega Baja for the first time.
The plant will be located in the industrial estate, away from the town centre and residential areas.
It will transform organic waste, from the brown bins now being used in some municipalities, to be turned into organic and ecological compost to improve the quality of agricultural soil.
Sr Cano said this will not only reduce waste sent to landfill, as required by current legislation, but will also obtain ‘a valuable resource with innumerable applications for the countryside’.
The installation will have capacity to treat 4,408 tonnes of organic waste per year and is expected to be operational in December 2025 at a cost of over €4.4 million, of which over €1.35M is being subsidised with EU recovery plan funds.
Recycling depot
Los Montesinos will also host a static recycling depot, for which the full council agreed in February to hand over land in the same industrial estate to the consortium.
This will enable over 4,900 residents to dispose of larger and more contaminating waste from their homes, such as furniture and electrical appliances.
Public participation committee
Photo: Consorcio Vega Baja Sostenible
And last week the consortium established its public participation committee for this term of office, which is made up of eight associations of residents and ecologists, and unions.
“Transparency and public participation are fundamental to keep progressing towards a circular economy,” said Sr Cano.
The associations are friends of the Sierra Escalona (ASE), Ecologistas en Acción, friends of south Alicante wetlands (AHSA), Segura Transparente Vega Baja, Arcángel residents’ association of San Miguel de Salinas, Vega Baja Limpia and the unions Intersindical Valenciana and CCOO.
With this committee, the consortium aims to increase public participation in waste management to implement its new plan, which includes a treatment plant, recycling depots and organic waste plants.
