Benidorm boots the cleaning service for Major Patron Saint Festivities with an increase in staff, cleaning and containers

Benidorm City Council will boost its cleaning services to improve service during the upcoming local fiestas. This reinforcement will extend beyond the festival days to also cover the ‘Fancy Dress Party’ on Thursday, November 13th, and Festa de la Carxofa (Artichoke Festival) on Saturday the 15th. This was announced by the Councillor for Cleaning, Luis Navarro, who noted that “these increased cleaning services will also be accompanied by other initiatives to promote the selective collection of waste at the peñas (festival club) premises.”

Navarro explained that the special cleaning service, designed in coordination with the concessionaire FCC, will run from this Saturday, November 8, until Sunday, the 16th. During these days, “several street cleaning shifts will be organised, and street washing will be increased in all areas with the highest concentration of festival-goers, members of local clubs, and the general public.” To this end, the concessionaire will reinforce its staff by calling in all seasonal workers and will modify shifts and schedules to cover these nine days of festivities.

In addition, nearly twenty litter bins and fifty containers—one 240-liter, four 330-liter, thirty 800-liter, five 1,000-liter, and five 3,200-liter—will be placed in areas with a high concentration of festival venues, such as the streets of El Calvari and Apolo XI neighborhoods, as well as near Emilio Ortuño fairgrounds and the fair set up at the fairgrounds at Plaza de SS MM los Reyes de España; and in the streets and squares where the main festival events will take place.

Regarding collection times, the Councillor for Street Cleaning has indicated that there will be a special service covering the areas with the highest concentration of festival venues twice a day: once at 10:00 a.m. and again at 5:00 p.m., in addition to the regular nighttime service. In these two special services, workers will collect organic waste and also the bags for selective collection, thus facilitating recycling even during the festival days.

Likewise, to promote separate waste collection, the City Council will distribute bags for organic waste to the festival groups and approximately 400 small yellow and blue containers for packaging and paper/cardboard. These latter containers are being distributed in collaboration with Ecoembes, the non-profit organisation that manages the recycling of household, commercial, and industrial packaging, as announced previously.

The Department of Street Cleaning also reminds residents that recycling containers are available in areas with high concentrations of festival groups and other festive activities, including Marqués de Comillas, Maravall, La Parra, Tulipanes, Plaza del Infant, Plaza de Neptuno, Parque de Elche, Ruzafa, L’Aigüera, Hort de Colón, Inglaterra, the fairgrounds, and Emilio Ortuño, among others.

Councillor Luis Navarro has called on “members of festival clubs, festival-goers and residents to reconcile the fun and festivities with the work of the cleaning service workers” and has thanked “in advance the collaboration of the entire city” in this regard.