New Year in Majorca Generates a Load of Rubbish

Although visitors to the island undoubtedly enjoyed them, New Year celebrations in Majorca were considered a ‘load of rubbish’ by many of its residents. Record numbers of revelers joined the festivities in capital Palma, resulting in the dumping of millions of kilograms of rubbish in the streets, which residents claim have been left to rot.

The majority of the party nights’ detritus was strewn all along the Paseo Maritimo seafront. Normally, this beautiful stretch of Palma is kept very tidy, despite the plethora of trendy cafes, bars, night clubs and restaurants along its length. But, the residents of Palma are extremely upset at the devastation, and threatening to demonstrate at the apparent lack of concern shown by their town council.

The Emaya, who are the municipal waste collection board of Palma, insist that they actually increased the collections this year and say that it was the overwhelming increase in the amount of rubbish deposited that caused the problems. To back up their claims Emaya pointed out that they collected 558,000 kilos of rubbish over the entire festive period; a sizeable increase on previous years.

But, unfortunately rather than take the rubbish directly to a landfill or some other waste recycling destination they chose to temporarily deposit it in the Plaza Olivar. The square is where local food markets have been held for centuries and the dumping there naturally angered residents and market traders alike. Other areas in the city also saw a significant increase in rubbish dumped on the streets.

Although the Emaya had provided extra facilities by increasing the number of bins all over the city in anticipation of the increase in rubbish from the revelers, the amount had been woefully underestimated.
Of the rubbish collected almost 15,000 items consisted of glass objects. The remainder was made up of plastic, cups, tins, plastic bags, and cardboard boxes that were all discarded along the normally picturesque seafront.

The rubbish generated during the New Year Celebrations didn’t impact on all those who were guests in the hotels in Majorca, but residents of the island were extremely disturbed at the mess. As a result they now want New Year drinking in their streets to be stopped as they fear that the rubbish could be even worse at this year’s celebrations.

The issue is now in the hands of the Palma council who plan to have discussions with residents and marina users, in order to come to a decision of what to do to prevent this happening to their beautiful city during the next New Year celebrations.