This 2024, the construction of the latest generation composting plant will be tendered for the Zonzamas Environmental Complex, as announced by the Lanzarote Council. A constructive modernization project that will be made reality thanks to a planned investment of almost 7,000,000 euros.
The president of the Institution, Oswaldo Betancort, has recalled that this new infrastructure is part of the European obligations for recycling biowaste, which are required to strengthen the circular economy.
"In a few months we have allocated resources and solutions so that Lanzarote and La Graciosa have an environmental complex that meets the demands of citizens and their status as a Biosphere Reserve territory. In terms of treatment of food or biodegradable waste, this modern plant will be added to the list of improvements already initiated in this area, such as the implementation of the fifth container, the brown one, in the seven municipalities," he says.
The future composting plant of the Zonzamas Environmental Complex will allow the proper treatment of biowaste from the separate collections that are in the process of being implemented by the different Lanzarote town councils. And as a structuring material, it will also allow the treatment of part of the biodegradable waste from parks and gardens that is currently delivered to the facilities owned by the Cabildo.
"We are talking about a modern composting plant," clarified the Councilor for Waste of the Cabildo, Domingo Cejas. "with a capacity to treat about 3,500 tons/year of food waste or small plant fraction, what we usually call biowaste. But, in addition, it will have the capacity to treat about 875 tons/year of pruning remains, biodegradable waste from parks and gardens. That means that Lanzarote will be able to obtain annually about 2,600 tons of compost for use in agriculture, gardening or for the recovery of degraded spaces, among other applications," the councilor detailed.
For Cejas, "the progress of the project that we plan to tender this year is good news for the people of Lanzarote and Graciosa, and also an improvement in municipal management since we maintain full collaboration in the collection and treatment of waste with all the island's town councils."
A millionaire investment
The construction project of the composting plant of the Zonzamas Environmental Complex has a base bidding budget of close to 7,000,000 euros, with the Cabildo having a subsidy of 2,750,000 euros granted by the Ministry of Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands.
Regarding the situation of the last permits before addressing the public contracting of this important project, the Vice-Ministry of Territorial Planning and Demographic Challenge of the Government of the Canary Islands sent the agreement of the Autonomous Commission of Environmental Assessment regarding the Environmental Impact Report of the project to the Cabildo of Lanzarote a month ago. And a week later, the island Institution requested the non-substantial modification of the Integrated Environmental Authorization of the Zonzamas Environmental Complex.
Councilor Domingo Cejas has confirmed that "this last step will be ready in a few weeks, together with the granting of the pending Interadministrative Cooperation by the Teguise City Council."
The future plant
The projected composting plant occupies an area of 2,200 m² (50 x 44 m), with a rectangular plan and a steel metal structure, covered and semi-open in outer parameters. It will have a gabled roof of 9.96 meters high, so that the height of the new building does not exceed the maximum height of the adjacent facilities, at the entrance of the Complex.
The fermentation and maturation process will be designed in trenches 20 meters long, 5.25 meters wide and 2.5 meters high of storage. It is a system based on the principle of composting with forced ventilation, with which decomposition rates of organic matter are obtained higher than in conventional processes.