'Green beach': Torremolinos gets 'Eco-Playa' award, perfection on a flagpole

YOU would expect a beach to be pale gold, or white, with blue or turquoise waters – or perhaps black with navy-blue waters if it's a volcanic zone like some of the Canary Islands' shores – but a 'green' one? Not unless it's covered in seaweed, anyway. Still, a stretch of the Costa del Sol can officially call itself a 'green beach' now: It's just netted the rarely-granted, but much-coveted, 'Eco-Playa' flag.

Tourists and local sunseekers in the 21st century care about other things besides having a good bar within reach, clean sands, minimal currents so they can safely take a dip (unless they're kite-surfers, of course). All these are still hugely important, along with handy facilities such as enough regularly-cleaned, close-by toilets, wooden walkways and foot-showers so you can put your flip-flops back on as you leave without sandpapering your feet, and lifeguards in case they get into trouble; and all these are standard on Spain's shores, given that it has been the country with the most Blue Flag beaches in the world for 34 years, uninterrupted. If you find a beach lacking in any of these elements, it's because it's a rugged, unspoilt, virgin piece of coastline where, if you're visiting, you'll probably have gone looking for raw nature and beautiful scenery rather than to top up your tan.

Now, though, the bar has been raised higher: It's not just that bathers want to see their beach free from litter; they want to know that this litter has been recycled rather than ending up in landfill. They want to know that any mess they generate as an unavoidable side-effect of being a human does not end up in the sea, or polluting land. They want to know that real efforts are being made to prevent and reverse coastal erosion – which, although typically associated with rugged cliffs and precariously-balanced homes, actually affects urban beaches even more, since excessive building activity eats away at the shores and causes the sea to claim back the land.

Efforts have multiplied in terms of the latter across the country in recent years – one award-winning seaside town is Oliva (southern Valencia province), which created a complete row of artificial dunes, protecting its existing natural ones and keeping the beach intact, by burying the literally tonnes of Mediterranean Tapeweed, or Neptune Grass, that washes ashore fairly regularly. 

This, the Posidonia Oceanica, is not seaweed – it is a sea plant which forms a meadow on the marine floor, providing oxygen underwater the same way trees do on land, so its presence is a sign that the natural offshore environment is in good health, although it annoys bathers when it appears in shrivelled heaps between their towel-space and the waves. Some parts of the country, such as the Balearic island of Formentera, have opted to leave it where it lands to form a natural anti-coastal erosion barrier; Oliva buried it to make dunes, and is now looking into ways of using the surplus as a renewable source of 'building' material for everything from park benches to litter bins. About 25 kilometres south, in Dénia (Alicante province) research is ongoing into whether it could be turned into biodegradable, disposable plastic-type packaging, in the same way as potato fibre, sugar cane and beetroot are.

'Flagship' beach: Surely all this is impossible?!

Many of these environmental efforts are contained within the ever-more-stringent requirements of the European Blue Flag award, so if your local beach has one of these flying, you know your town council has worked extremely hard to get its coastal enclaves in tip-top condition for summer. And these are re-assessed every year, so they cannot rest on their laurels once it's in place; efforts continue year-round and multiply in early spring to make sure the beach stays 'blue'.

Torremolinos is now green as well as blue. 

And rainbow-coloured. 

Los Álamos beach has both; the blue one has been in place for so long that regular visitors would be scratching their heads and wondering what was missing if it was ever lost to them. The 'green' one has just been hoisted.

Awarded by the Technical Association for Waste Management and the Environment (ATEGRUS), the 'Eco-Playa' flag is only given where a beach holds up-to-date certificates of quality and commitment to the environment and to sustainability, that its waters and sands are of excellent health and calibre, that the beach is cleaned thoroughly and regularly – a blue-flag beach would need at least once-daily cleaning, but an Eco-Playa needs even more – that cleaning, maintenance, beach repair and regeneration methods are sustainable (sandscaping is all very well, but if the sand is dug from already-ravaged quarries, by drilling into mountains, or taken from other beaches or riverbeds which do not have enough of their own, it doesn't wash for the purposes of an 'Eco-Playa' flag), and that its waste management is planet-friendly, with enough litter bins and recycling banks (and emptied regularly enough to avoid overspill) are on hand and all rubbish cleared off the sands, out of the sea, or from the esplanade is recycled.

Skimmers, or water filters, to remove dirty residue and help filter out microplastics, are required, and extra points are given for creativity in ongoing environmentally-friendly solutions (such as the Posidonia dunes we mentioned).

'Eco' also means giving space back to nature. A beach which wins this award will be attractive to look at and will, in fact, include plenty of green bits: Gardens, trees, landscaping, and all buildings and street furniture being of a design and level of care and maintenance to enable them to blend in with their surroundings (a glass-and-chrome high-rise hotel in the middle of a coastal nature reserve wouldn't make the cut, for example).

Lighting at night cannot be excessive so as to create visual pollution, but needs to be enough to be convenient, safe and attractive.

Facilities are also considered. Proper sign-posting to make it easy to find (and get out of), accessibility, especially for those with restricted mobility or vision or other physical challenges, wind-breaks (nobody wants to turn into a human sand-dune whilst catching the rays), decent walkways that do not hurt bare feet and are not made from ugly or polluting material – enough of them for convenience but not so many as to spoil the view – a regular and efficient lifeguard service, showers, foot-showers, clean loos, places in the shade as well as in the sun, and, overall, safety and security. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has added new criteria beaches have to meet to get their blue flags, and these have to be met or even exceeded to gain an 'Eco-Playa' flag; social distancing, for example, must be possible, so a beach where your towel overlaps your neighbour's or where your feet are on the next person's head would not be considered Covid-friendly.

So it's fair to say that there's no room for anything to be less than absolutely perfect, which is quite a feat for local authorities to achieve.

Los Álamos, however, has, indeed, achieved all this, and Torremolinos town council is justifiably proud of itself. 

It is not likely to keep its uniqueness in this respect for long, though. A new standard has been created, and other towns with beaches are going to want in, so it will have sparked fresh national competition and will be spurring on other councils to have their beaches recognised as the best of the best. 

Yours, if it's not Los Álamos, could be next.

No, it's not impossible: What this means for Torremolinos

“Yet another step forward for us in safety, quality and excellence for Torremolinos as a leading holiday destination in Andalucía,” says mayor José Ortiz, who also had words of congratulations for his beach management councillor, Maribel Baeza.

“We will, of course, continue to work hard to achieve certificates that accredit us for what we already know we are: A landmark destination which is constantly advancing and modernising itself efficiently and sustainably.

“This 'Eco-Playa' flag joins other key kitemarks we have for Los Álamos, such as the 'Q' for quality – present on all Torremolinos' beaches – the complete renovation of our hotel network, the refurbishment of our town centre, and our recent achievement of the ICTE's Safe Tourism stamp.”

For Torremolinos' sake, we'd like to say this collection of rosettes and trophies was unique enough to make it a national champion, but we can't, because the list of beaches in Spain that hold the Blue Flag award, the 'Q' for quality and the ICTE Safe Tourism stamp is so long it would need another article to name and locate them all. 

But Torremolinos' perfection being 'old hat' and 'nothing newsworthy' is a good thing: It means you'd be hard-pushed to find a beach in Spain that doesn't reach these seemingly-impossible standards.

Rather than wasting your energy trying, though, your job this summer is simply to head to your nearest one and enjoy it – and, if you live there or have a holiday home there, to remind yourself now and again that all this perfection is simply an ordinary part of your daily townscape, as much part of the wallpaper as your nearest supermarket or post office.