The Vice-President of the Government highlighted on Wednesday the importance of the Integrated Waste Management Plan, which allows the Azores to turn "a problem of the past into an opportunity of the future" at a time when Azorean islands, Flores and Graciosa, lead the national ranking of recycling.

"Waste, being an environmental problem of the past, may become in a future a raw material with potentialities, bringing added value to regional economic activities, wealth generation and employment creation," stated Sérgio Ávila. The government official spoke during the signing ceremony of a contract for the allocation of incentives to the company Resiaçores. The event was presided over by the President of the Government, Vasco Cordeiro.

On the occasion, the Vice-President announced that, according to the latest data from the Green Dot Society, the islands of Flores and Graciosa have been the areas in the country that registered the highest rate of waste recycling per capita in the first four months of 2013.

"The Azores lead the national ranking of waste recycling, which allows them to set an example to the country at the level of environmental protection and modernity," stressed the government official.

For the Vice-President, the Integrated Waste Management Plan of the Azores, which involves a total investment over 100 million Euros, is "fully" complying with the estimated schedule. This project will "turn solid waste into a problem of the past and an opportunity for the future."

In this regard, the nine islands of the archipelago are being equipped with infrastructures that will not only meet an environmental goal, with the collection and processing of all waste, but also the goal of waste recovery, which was considered by Sérgio Ávila as an "extremely important aspect."

The contract signed on Wednesday between the Region and Resiaçores provides for the allocation of a financial incentive of about 800 thousand Euros to subsidise a global investment of over 1.2 million Euros for the acquisition of equipment to the waste processing and waste recovery centres on the island of Flores.

"It concludes this phase of a vast project that aims, with a joint effort of private investors, the Government and local authorities, eradicate on a permanent basis something that undermined the island's environmental quality, which was the existence of open rubbish dumps," stressed Sérgio Ávila.

The Vice-President recalled that "this reality no longer exists" and it was not compatible with the classification of Flores as Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. The government official took the commitment of sealing the existing dumps on the island, under the next Community Support Framework, in a global investment over 1.1 million Euros.