Benidorm joins the Ecovidrio summer campaign and aspires to revalidate its Green Flag as the city with the highest recycling

Benidorm has joined Ecovidrio's summer campaign to promote and raise awareness of recycling glass for another year, with "the challenge of revalidating the Green Flag" obtained in the last edition of this award, that of 2019, in recognition of its very important recycling volume. This is what the mayor, Toni Pérez, said today at a press conference with the Councilor for the Environment, Mónica Gómez, and Ecovidrio area manager, Roberto Fuentes.

The mayor has highlighted that this campaign ‘Green Flags Movement’ involves the city's hospitality establishments, and has anticipated that “to date 308” venues in the city have joined. A participation figure “above previous editions”, according to Fuentes, who has indicated that “as establishments are reopened, it is expected to reach 400 participants”, thus setting a new record.

Toni Pérez recalled Benidorm closed 2019 with “spectacular” glass recycling data, with 56 kilos per inhabitant and year, “three times above the national and regional average”. Last year, despite the decline in tourist activity and the consequent decline in leisure consumption, the city recycled more than 1,750,000 kilos of glass. A volume that was translated into 29.4 kilos per inhabitant and year, "well above the provincial and regional average, which was 18 kilos," according to the Ecovidrio manager.

Also "above the national average" is Benidorm "in number of containers, 393", distributed "not only in the urban area, but also in La Huerta", has indicated the mayor.

After highlighting "the great component of environmental awareness" of this initiative "that contributes from the local to global improvement", the mayor has remarked that 'Movimiento Banderas Verdes' is "perfectly integrated with our Smart Tourist Destination Strategic Plan (DTI) , the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) ”, since they all have“ one of their fundamental axes in sustainability ”.

For his part, the Ecovidrio manager has stated that this campaign contributes to show that "tourism" is a "sustainable" industry, and that the 'Green Flag' is "an environmental mark" that reaffirms Benidorm as a "sustainable city" , in this case "through glass recycling".

In addition, this campaign has another "reason", Fuentes said, "supporting the hospitality industry, especially this year" because "we are aware of the difficulties" generated by the pandemic.

130 coastal towns from all over Spain participate in ‘Movimiento Banderas Verdes’ and 8 national distinctions will be awarded, 2 of them in the Valencian Community. Each participating establishment receives special recycling bins to facilitate the task of collecting and transferring the glass to the containers.

More than 30% of all glass is generated in the summer period, and more than 52% of single-use glass comes from the hospitality sector.