Compost and Resilience in the Canary Islands

Below is the narrative I told at a Global Gathering of level three teams in the Gigatonne Challenge yesterday - a brief overview of why returning organic waste to the soil in the form of compost is so crucial in the Canary Islands. As a level three team our challenge is to reduce 10 tonnes / month of greenhouse gas emissions over a three month sprint. Follow us on Instagram: @canarias.siempreviva.

Intro to actors and context

The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago of 8 islands situated off the north-west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean, at 3 hours flight from the capital Madrid.

80% of a total population of 2.2 million people is concentrated on two islands: Tenerife and Gran Canaria - where our team is located.

The Canary Islands have doubled their CO2 emissions in the last 30 years, reaching a peak of 13 million tons in 2019. This high figure, which puts the Canary Islands at the top of Spains’ emissions report, has something to do with the 15 million tourists who visit the archipelago each year.

Waste constitutes the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, due to a use and throw mentality, likely fostered but the fact that the development model is based on the service sector, including tourism.

Crisis / what is happening

On the other hand, as a subtropical region that is dependent on the outside world, it is especially vulnerable to climate change. IPCC reports state that islands in general, are the most vulnerable areas in the world.

Due to rising temperatures, leading to increased evaporation from soils, there is a 90% risk of desertification in the Canary Islands. The level of food sovereignty is low and decreasing.

There is also a waste management crisis with landfill spaces almost full to capacity. A lot of waste is transported for processing elsewhere, with attendant greenhouse gas emissions and costs.

30 - 50% of municipal waste is organic. Whilst in other areas of the world there is the options of using organic waste for the production of energy, in the Canary Islands there is a pressing need for organic waste to be used to enrich soils, due to the risk of desertification and lack of food sovereignty already mentioned.

Resolution

At present we are developing expertise in the area of school composting, supporting schools to close the loop by converting their organic waste into compost to be used on their school kitchen gardens. We are working with 20 schools, each abating an average of 0.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a month.

After the sprint is over we will be preparing for level four (100 tonnes / month of greenhouse gas emissions reductions) by:

• carrying out a participatory diagnosis with key stakeholders to develop a road map for organic waste management on the island

• expanding our school work to work with families, empowering them to act as agents of change within their communities

• developing two community compost pilots with the town council of the second largest city on the island.