Canal Gestión Lanzarote has removed from the treatment plants, wastewater pumping stations and sanitation network that it manages almost 350 tons of solid waste in the first ten months of 2021, a slightly lower amount than in previous years in the same period of time, taking into account that in the overall calculation for the year 2020 the removal of this type of waste amounted to 570 tons, and in 2019 to 552 tons.
The company in charge of water in Lanzarote assures that all this solid and wet waste, once isolated, is transferred to the Zonzamas landfill, trips and extra costs that would not be necessary "if the waste went directly to the bins." In what we have been in the year, Canal Gestión Lanzarote maintains that it has made "525 trips of this type." The decrease in trips in the last two years, being practically the same amount of waste, "is due to the capacity of the transport trays, which since 2020 are of larger dimensions."
The company trusts that awareness "will become increasingly established in society so that these bad practices" will decrease in the future", but wants to take advantage of the celebration of World Toilet Day, which is celebrated every November 19 after being proclaimed as such by the United Nations in 2013, and "make a call for attention on the importance of using the toilet correctly by making good use of it."
Only toilet paper should be thrown in the toilet
Canal Gestión Lanzarote recalls that everything that is thrown down the toilet "reaches the sewage system, causing environmental damage." As a relevant fact, the company highlights that the sanitation network of Lanzarote and La Graciosa "suffers an average of 97 blockages and obstructions per month." Blockages that the company assures are settled with "serious breakdowns", which prevent the provision of the service normally and "with spills, all caused by the accumulation of solid and wet waste that form tangled balls of wipes, cotton swabs, sanitary pads, hairs, feminine hygiene products, cosmetics, hairs, fats, etc., from both toilets and the drainage network and that solidify inside the network."
Wet wipes, the great threat
Canal Gestión Lanzarote emphasizes that all these solid wastes or garbage that end up in the sanitation network, in the wastewater pumping stations and treatment plants "are harmful to the system." However, wet wipes have taken on special relevance in recent years, which are presumed to be biodegradable, "not always being so because their composition based on a mixture of synthetic fibers prevents them from disintegrating well in the water." In the best of cases, the company adds, they may end up decomposing a part, "but they do not do so in the time it takes to reach the treatment plants, unlike toilet paper, which after half an hour has dissolved almost completely."
"They have become a serious problem, not only for the hydraulic infrastructure, but also for the homes themselves, where they are responsible for internal blockages with complicated solutions, in addition to the environmental consequences," they add.
Finally, Canal Gestión Lanzarote emphasizes that it is "essential that we all make a good and adequate management of household waste, depositing it where it corresponds." With respect to inadequate discharges that negatively affect the health system, it should be noted as a prominent fact that the Spanish Association of Water Supply and Sanitation (AEAS) indicates that the removal of these solid and wet wastes represents an additional cost of 200 million euros.