Sustainable science step No lifeguards over Easter

PALMA’S beaches and municipal swimming pools will not have a lifeguard service over Easter and there are doubts over whether it will be in place ready for the summer.

The reason is a dispute between the company that runs the service, the trades union and the authorities, as the firm refuses to accept the extension of last year’s contract and is even contemplating declaring bankruptcy to avoid having to honour it.

Lifeguards in Palma last year staged a series of protests to demand better wages and working conditions, which culminated in an agreement between the union, the company and the town hall to introduce a series of improvements for this year.

THE Mallorca Preservation Foundation has launched a project to reuse wine bottles as part of its goal to transform the island into a model of sustainable management. The ReWine Mallorca scheme aims to establish a system for collecting, cleaning, and reusing wine bottles, which could revolutionise production and consumption practices.

This initiative has the potential to enable Mallorca to produce and consume up to five million wine bottles annually in a reusable format, thereby saving over two kilos of CO2 per bottle reused.

LIFEGUARDS: Will not be available.

Among them were increasing salaries by 35 per cent, starting the service at Easter, boosting the workforce and creating a new lifeguard tower at Portitxol, among others. However, the changes were included in a new contract that should have been approved already but a series of delays have held things up.

Betty Henderson PALMA is preparing to become a national hub of innovation with the construction of the new Balearic Islands Coastal Observation System (SOCIB) headquarters. The project, which has an incredible budget of €7.5 million, is set to be completed by 2024.

The national Minister of Science and Innovation, Diana Morant, graced the beginning of