Tenerife

Tenerife is an island that has always caused the interest of different cultures: Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, Arabs, Romans, Vikings, and Different European countries have coveted their strategic position, such as Great Britain, Portugal and Germany in many phases of history. Part of this interest is motivated by the exceptional climate that can be enjoyed all year round in our territory, which since the 18th century has begun to attract tourism for both sick and European people motivated by the natural beauty and agriculture of the island , Which began to consolidate with the first hotels in the nineteenth century. The island has been visited by scientific figures such as Alexander Von Humboldt and Charles Darwin, warlike as Horace Nelson who was defeated and imprisoned in it, politicians like Sir Winston Churchill or Bill Clinton, writers like Agatha Christie, and even Christopher Colon On any of his trips. In Tenerife is the National Park of the Cañadas del Teide, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of its main attractions, next to the Anaga Massif, a biosphere reserve. Finally, San Cristobal de la Laguna, its oldest city has been chosen a world heritage city. The Carnival celebrated on the island, usually in the month of February, is a world-wide festival of international tourist interest, the religious festivals of the Holy Christ of La Laguna or Corpus Christi de la Orotava and its wonderful carpets.

In Tenerife, the three most representative towns have been chosen as the pilot centers, with the largest number of tourists on the island: Adeje and Arona in the south, and Puerto de la Cruz in the north, and a wide and varied range of Services and facilities for all its visitors being near the two airports of the island. Tenerife as a whole welcomes over 5 million tourists a year. The type of tourists that visit us is very varied, since it contemplates from the tourism of young people, of sun and beach, the tourism of old people that looks for the rest but also the sun and the beach, tourism of families with children, the Tourism for people who love sports, and some athletes to prepare and train in winter, backpackers, and tourists who walk all their paths and natural paths for its many protected landscapes, nature lovers and the environment, party tourism, In Carnivals’ mainly, seasonal tourism, coming to spend the winter to the Canaries, tourism of fairs, or weekend tourism, cruise tourism, and nautical tourism, including tourism of low, medium, and high purchasing power. As for the activities that are developed, almost all those that need all these visitors: Crowded and religious festivals, concerts of modern music, classical and other cultural activities, marine and mountain sports and traditional, activities related to the environment, And cultural traditions, gastronomy, sports, and leisure. The duration of the stay ranges from the short of a weekend, the week or two weeks as usual average and those of Easter, to the long seasons, both seasonal, in winter mainly 2 or 3 moth, and in summer throughout the month, being in these seasons to 100%. There are visitors who even set their second residence on the island, spending half a year or more in it.

In relation to waste management, Tenerife has the Special Territorial Plan for Waste Management (PTEOR) since 2011, in that plan were exposed a series of rules and considerations as well as sizing and planning the infrastructures necessary to achieve a correct management of the waste throughout the island. The Special Territorial Plan for Waste Management (PTEOR) is structured around 7 fundamental strategic axes: prevention and minimization of waste generation, maximum selective collection of materials and their recycling, maximum use of organic matter, treatment prior to the disposal of all waste not collected selectively, safe disposal of secondary waste, public organization for waste management and citizen participation and as the seventh axe: creation of the Tenerife Waste Observatory. In the different municipalities, and especially those of the three chosen tourist areas, the measures of these axes have been adopted, both at the municipal level and with the help of the Cabildo, and have even been improving these with the adaptation to the new and the use of better systems for the collection and distribution of waste after the various public tenders have been carried out throughout this period, in which the service, means and effectiveness have been improved mainly. At Insular level there is a system that selectively selective collection. This is organized at the municipal level, which is implementing the 5th container for organic waste in some municipalities, and is already conducting a pilot composting experience. At present there is a Biological Mechanical Treatment Plant where the bulk waste is separated from the mixing container, separating into different fractions that are reincorporated into the selective collection channels, eliminating the remaining inert waste in landfill, separating the organic part, and biostabilizing this in an aerobic plant, this material that after being inerted is also deposited in the cells of the landfill.

Impact of tourism: it’s economically the most important source of income on the island, but it involves a series of problems with the sustainability of this and the management of its resources and one of them is the large waste generation generated as always has caused significant problems for its correct management. Waste management and planning of these actions entail a significant reaction time, both in the planning phase of all measures, infrastructure projects, as well as the coordination and promotion of plans for minimization, selective collection, and other systems more novel collection, prevention or minimization. This implementation is complicated both by the numerous regulations that regulate it and by the speed with which it is modified, the main reason that either the deadlines are not met or a phase has not been implemented when it has to be modified when the provision is modified which regulates it, the quantities that they have or the prohibitions as has happened with the organic matter, coming from the mixing container, in terms of not being able to produce compost with this part of the residues of organic matter. Many tourists think that a tourist area is not their home and therefore do not practice a proper waste management as in it, do not use the same care in doing so, do not have the same means with which they have there, or do not know how to manage Waste correctly, or even come from areas where selective separation and advanced management of waste, doesn’t exist as such, not being aware of such an act as a civic duty of every citizen in which saves material and natural resources. The only thing the pilot expected is be able to improve at reduce mix waste fraction.