Containers for overflowing plastics, glass or paper, with bottles and other waste scattered on the floor or in bags piled up around it. This is the current scenario in the municipality of Lagoa – and in many other parts of the Algarve – with containers for recyclable waste, whose collection is the responsibility of ALGAR, a company in which the majority of the capital is private and whose provision of this service is the result of a concession of the Portuguese State since the 90s.
The Municipality of Lagoa, in light of the protests it has received, from citizens and tourists, emphasizes that ALGAR "is not a company hired by this Chamber", and the municipality does not have, "unfortunately, any power in the management/organization" of its collection services.
The Municipality, in a note sent to the editorial offices, clarifies that, «given the significant increase in the quantities of waste produced in the municipality in recent weeks, despite the strong investment that has been made in the installation of new ecological islands by the Municipality and new ecopoints ALGAR's surface area”, it can be seen that this company “has not been able to collect on a daily basis the recycling bins that become full, causing undesirable situations that we vehemently disapprove of”.
The Services of this Municipality, «with a view to collaborating with ALGAR, daily monitor/monitor the filling status of all existing ecopoints in the municipality, also daily reporting this information to ALGAR, in order to help improve the organization of its collection circuits and to prevent the recycling bins from being full”, so that “they are collected with the necessary frequency to ensure that the municipality remains clean and with the quality that is desired”.
Unfortunately, adds the Câmara de Lagoa, «ALGAR has not been able to provide the necessary response and we have witnessed countless situations in which we have come across ecopoints and ecological islands completely full and with waste in their surroundings».
To minimize this situation, the Cleaning Service of this Lagoon Council «affected part of its teams (with the inherent costs for the public purse and in a service that is not our responsibility) to collect and clean recyclable waste that accumulates abroad, so that at least the outer space surrounding the recycling bins is minimally clean and free of waste».
But the Municipality of Lagoa also asks for «the collaboration of all our residents, so that, whenever they identify a full ecopoint or ecological island, they can transport their waste to the next collection point that is available, thus avoiding unwanted accumulations'.
Residents may also contact ALGAR immediately, informing that, in a given location, the ecopoint is full, thus helping that entity organize the circuits with a view to their rapid collection.
This contact can be made to the numbers 289 894 480 / 800 203 251 (Linha Verde), or to the email [email protected] .
On the other hand, the City Council also calls for “all Non-Domestic producers (restaurants, bars, supermarkets, etc...) to join the free Algarlinha service (800 915 331), which collects recyclable waste directly at the production site, thus avoiding the placing of such recyclable waste in recycling bins or ecological islands, making this equipment more available for domestic producers to place their waste there».
Comments