What happens to a piece of packaging tossed out at a supermarket in Las Palmas, or the food scraps from a restaurant in Puerto de la Cruz? That’s the question the Canary Islands’ Circular Economy Strategy, launched in 2021, has been trying to answer island by island, and on 1 June 2026 the team managing the strategy met to review progress made between 2024 and 2026 and set out the next steps.
The meeting, convened by the Directorate-General for Environmental Quality, brought together representatives from various departments of the Canary Islands government along with entities tied to the strategy’s governance. Among the progress reported were the establishment of the governance bodies set out in the plan, the creation of a dedicated Circular Economy Technical Office, the development of circular public procurement tools, specific technical and legal studies, and initiatives around ecodesign, sustainable aviation fuels and bio-waste management. According to the update shared at the meeting, the current 2024-2026 Action Plan is expected to reach 60% execution by year’s end, with the remaining actions already under way.
“The Canary Islands are making solid progress in building a real circular economy adapted to the particularities of our territory, thanks to coordinated work between administrations, the private sector and social actors,” said Ángel Montañés, the Canary Islands government’s director-general for environmental quality. Montañés added that the circular economy “represents a strategic opportunity for the Canary Islands, not just environmentally but also economically and socially, generating new business opportunities, cutting waste and making better use of resources.”
The meeting also unveiled a proposal to update the 2021-2030 Circular Economy Strategy itself, aiming to simplify its structure and better align its action lines with the value chains considered priorities for the archipelago. The next Action Plan, covering 2027 to 2029, will concentrate on three areas Montañés described as strategic: bio-waste management, plastics and packaging, and construction, calling them “key sectors for moving toward a more efficient and sustainable economic model.” A first draft of the new document will be put together over the coming months, with input from the advisory group and other stakeholders, ahead of its planned entry into force in January 2027.
What remains to be seen is how far these good intentions translate into tangible change for people living in the Canary Islands, from waste management in small municipalities that often lack resources for advanced treatment facilities, to the real impact on local businesses now expected to adopt circular procurement practices. For an archipelago that imports most of what it consumes and has to manage waste through complex island logistics, the circular economy is not just an environmental question. Increasingly, it’s a question of cost and economic self-sufficiency too.
