Benidorm celebrates the 1st Recycling Festival this Saturday

Benidorm City Council will commemorate World Recycling Day this coming Saturday, May 17th, with the celebration of the "1st Recycling Festival." An activity that will take place this morning, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Calle Alcalde José Such, was presented this morning by the Councillor for the Environment, Mónica Gómez; the Councillor for Street Cleaning, Luis Navarro; and the President of Consorci Mare, José Ramón González de Zárate.

This festival was created to raise awareness among citizens about the work carried out throughout the year by the City Council, the concessionaire companies, and their collaborators "in support of recycling and for the benefit of the environment," explained Gómez. The Councillor highlighted "the great effort" made by all parties involved in these processes and invited "all citizens to this fun day and to participate by recycling."

In addition to the Department of the Environment, other companies, organisations, and concessionaires will also be present at the event, such as Hidraqua, FCC, Ecovidrio, Actúa, Consorci Mare, and "Mundo Circular" project from the Generalitat Valenciana, Ecoembes, Ecovidrio and Sigres. All of them will have a tent or stand where they will explain to attendees the activities they carry out to promote reuse, reduction, and recycling.

Thus, the Department of Street Cleaning will bring its collection trucks to the Recycling Festival, as well as a good number of items that have been given a second life." The aim of this, said Luis Navarro, is "to raise awareness that a large number of items can be reused and given a new life." They will also bring waste bins and recycling containers, and special glass containers with the Benidorm logo will be installed. The City Council will also bring to the event the new waste bins that have been installed on the Levante and Poniente beaches.

For his part, the president of Consorci Mare, José Ramón González de Zárate, emphasised the idea of ​​"reusing household goods" and provided some figures that support the organisation's good performance. He emphasised that in the first three months of the year, the Consorci "has managed to recover more than 32% of total revenue, so we continue to meet our waste reduction targets."

In this regard, it should be noted that the legislation establishes a maximum limit of 44%, "and Consorci Mare comfortably meets this limit by allocating only 39.66% to landfill," he stated. González de Zárate also noted that the "ecomovil network" is becoming increasingly "consolidated," having registered a 20% increase in the collection of bulky items and a 9% increase in mattresses.

However, the president of Consorci Mare emphasised that the main objective is "to reach people, the little ones, because it is essential to continue supporting recycling, reuse, and waste reduction." The Consorci's mobile eco-park will be open all Saturday morning, and González de Zárate took the opportunity to remind everyone that "everyone who drops off household goods and other items receives a discount."

Environmental educators will also be present at the Recycling Festival to answer any questions about recycling, and environmental educators from the concessionaire Hidraqua will offer explanations about water conservation and management.

Before concluding, the president of Consorci Mare offered some examples of the importance of recycling and doing it correctly. “Removing an unrecycled glass bottle from the landfill costs 100 euros. For a container, the cost is 50 euros. If it's deposited in the correct place instead, the benefit is approximately 50 euros.” Mónica Gómez, for her part, finally expressed her hope that “this will be the first of many such celebrations and that the figures continue to improve.”