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.