Taking advantage of the State of Alarm decreed by the Government of Spain by the epidemic of Covid-19, the Waste Consortium of Gipuzkoa GHK will allow the Ekondakin corporation, which manages the incinerator of Zubieta, to burn the waste generated in this territory through the TMB plant as in a normal state of operation, interrupting the testing period. In other words, GHK will have to sanction Ekondakin with one hand for postponing the incinerator in the test periods prior to its launch (penalty of half a million) and will allow it to launch the incineration contract with the other hand – theoretically while the State of Alarm is in force – paying the tariffs planned for it, as well as raising the prices approved in 2017 to around 6%.

It seems a strange decision, since the GHK, with the Environment Deputy Asensio, is going to hand over to the same company that punishes it for the delay in the testing phase, the implementation of the contract without finalising these tests. However, the management of GHK has submitted reports prepared by private consultants Idom and Deloitte, which confirm that the implementation of the contract can be carried out without contravention of the law and that the furnace which technically still has to be tested can burn Gipuzkoa’s waste without exceeding the pollution standards. The GHK, for its part, plans to transfer some of Gipuzkoa’s rejections to the Zabalgarbi kilns, after being treated at the Zubieta TMB, if its infrastructures cannot burn everything because of the limitations they have until the end of the tests.

Therefore, if on Tuesday the GHK accepts the management’s proposal, as long as it has not passed all the tests – and cannot technically exceed the containment standards currently set by the coronavirus – the State of Alarm has allowed all standards to be approved. The Zubieta incinerator can operate as if it were. And so did Ekondakine.

In the area of monetary payments, according to ARGIA, in 2020 all the municipalities of Gipuzkoa will pay the contract Ekondakin on the one hand, for having the possibility to deal with their rejections in Zubieta (Payment for Availability) EUR 23 million (in particular, 22,931.555), as each municipality will pay this main part of the bill much more, regardless of whether it has: The rest of the bill, the smallest, will pay Ekondakin EUR 16.37 for each tonne of rejection generated by each city hall. This point shows the treatment that unites Gipuzkoans with the company Ekondakin (Urbaser) for the age of 35.