The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is responsible, among other duties, for cleaning, public safety, environmental conservation, and waste reuse, all in accordance with Law 7/1985 on the Bases of the Local Regime, Law 22/1988 on Coasts, Law 1/1999 on Waste in the Canary Islands, Law 7/2015 on Municipalities of the Canary Islands, Law 7/2021 on Climate Change and Energy Transition, Law 6/2022 on Climate Change and Energy Transition of the Canary Islands, and Law 7/2022 on Waste and Contaminated Soils for a Circular Economy. The legislation cited, along with the City Council’s commitment, aims to enable the redesign of environmental conservation policies on beaches and the management and removal of seaweed deposits toward a more sustainable and circular model, reducing the current volume and cost of tons ending up as landfill waste. To that end, the City Council has a qualified team of municipal technicians coordinated by the Department of the City of the Sea, as well as ad hoc services contracted through public tenders to manage cleaning and waste in a more sustainable manner. It is worth highlighting that in 2017, this City Council received the European Atlantic City Award from the European Commission and the Atlantic Arc Cities Association for its “innovative and creative development of the City of the Sea initiative and promotion of the restoration and rehabilitation of its coastline.”
The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in NATUR-EXT: The extensive experience of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in managing environmental issues such as seaweed deposits makes it an essential partner for participating in the NATUR-EXT project, in line with its expertise in addressing environmental risk challenges. As part of its responsibilities, the City Council carries out daily cleaning of the coastline and its beaches, including the removal of seaweed deposits, which represent a considerable volume in tons per year and incur a high cost due to their disposal as non-reusable waste in landfills. Its contribution as an ERDF partner will focus on the management and development of cleaning protocols, collection, environmental impact monitoring, and habitat restoration. All of this aims to valorize waste through the extraction of emerging bioactive compounds that could result in valuable end products.
Go to the website of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria