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INPRIMATU
The dumping of asbestos at the Zaldibar landfill began in 2012 but was authorised in 2013.
  • Environmental Advisor Iñaki Arriola delivered on 18 February to the Permanent Representative, at the request of EH Bildu, the quantities of construction waste with asbestos discharged into the Zaldibar landfill: "In 2012 337 tons were issued and in 2019 4,253 tons were issued. A total of 16,148 tons." But the authorisation for the discharge of asbestos appears for the first time in the 2013 Integrated Environmental Authorisation. Were those 337 tons of 2012 issued without authorization? Why had he not provided the company with any fines or penalties?
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The Environment Minister, Iñaki Arriola, presented the following information to the Permanent Representative on 18 February: "The entry of construction waste with fibercement, i.e. containing asbestos, has steadily grown in the Zaldibar landfill: In 2012, 337 tons were issued and in 2019 4,253 tons were issued. In total 16,148 tonnes, 0.57% of the total landfill waste".

The company Verter Recycling 2002 received for the first time in 2007 the Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AAI) for the Zaldibar landfill, which did not authorise the discharge of asbestos. It authorised the disposal of "insulation materials" (number 17 06 04 in the European Waste List), but not of "construction materials containing asbestos" (number HEZ 17 06 05).

The Integrated Environmental Authorisation 2013 does include the authorisation to dispose of waste with asbestos.

In 2013, the Environment Department of the Basque Government amended the Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AAI) of the Zaldibar landfill and renewed the authorisation. ARGIA has obtained the AAI 2013 document, in which asbestos is included in the list of authorised ones, under number HEZ 17 06 05. From the point of view of transparency, it is to be denounced that the Integrated Environmental Authorisation 2013 is not public.

Dumping without authorization and then permitting?

According to Arriola, these asbestos residues emitted in 2012, of 337 tonnes of fibrocement, have been determined to have been discharged without authorisation. Among the IBBs of 2007 and 2013, there is no document indicating that this Zaldibar landfill was authorised to contain asbestos, nor made public in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country, nor in the City Hall of Zaldibar.

This is a matter of transparency, as the tonnes of asbestos emitted in 2012 by the company Verter Recycling were not subject to any sanction.

 

 

 

Photograph taken partially from the Integrated Environmental Authorisation (AAI) 2013. The right-hand column shows the number for this type of waste in the European Waste List (LER). 17 06 05. Figure with the number "Construction materials with asbestos" (not included in the Environmental Authorisation 2007). Please note: the specific types of waste have six numbers. The four numbers are the title of the section, in this case: 17 06 It is only the title of the section "Materials of isolation and construction with asbestos".

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, the 2007 Integrated Environmental Authorization does not include the code LER 17 06 05 number six that authorizes asbestos. The line in which asbestos appears, of four numbers, is only the title of the section: 1706 asbestos insulation and construction materials