Large volumes meeting in the Government: Summoned by the Department of the Environment, the owners of public and private landfills of the CWC and those responsible for the industrial sectors that deposit the most waste in landfills have come to the table: Basque Paper Cluster Association, Navarre and Basque Country Funders Association and Steel Cluster. It is 17 February, eleven days after the arrival of the Zaldibar landfill, and the Mutiloa landfill will be closed on 29 February. The meeting aims to provide a solution to the 500,000 tonnes of waste annually destined for the Zaldibar landfill of the company Verter Recycling 2002 and to the 350,000 tonnes sent to the landfill of Mutiloa de Cespa Conten, S.A. Outcome of the meeting: "There is currently no capacity to continue dumping waste in the quantity and form previously carried out," he said.

The fulfilment of the household tasks collected at this meeting would allow public and private landfill sites to inform the Basque Government of the amount of waste they have the capacity to collect, and in addition to the amount they have received so far, they could receive 440,000 tonnes of waste more per year, that is, half of the 850,000 that Zaldibar and Mutiloa landfills devoured each year.

Order 1556 of the Environment Department of the Basque Government, published in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country on 4 March, begins with all the information that has been provided so far. The Order comes when Basque society is shocked by the form of waste management that has emerged in the Zaldibar landfill and is calling for control, and appears to be putting forward drastic measures at first reading.

What to do with 2.2 million tonnes of non-hazardous waste?

Every year, 2.2 million tonnes of non-hazardous waste are deposited in CAPV landfills. The Basque Government gives this information in Order 1556. In 2018, 2.5 million tonnes of waste came to landfill (if the law was complied with, landfills had to make the last effort to recycle all these tons of waste). In fact, ARGIA has obtained official data on the waste that was deposited in all CAPV landfills in 2018, data from the Basque Government: this list details the types of waste collected in each landfill and the specific kilograms thereof. To define the type of residue, the European RSI code is used, which assigns a specific number to each type of residue as standard cataloging.

The Government Order 1556 lays down the following rules for non-hazardous waste producers and landfills authorised for receipt. The order is valid for at least 12 months and aims to reduce the amount of waste that is deposited in the landfill. The measures it has taken are as follows:

– Reception of indigenous waste in CAPV landfill sites. The disposal of waste generated outside the CAPV to CAPV landfills will require special authorisation from the Environment Department.

– The Order forces the paper industry to burn sludge. In 2018, there were 102,500 tonnes for incinerators each year. The types of waste involved in the burning in particular are destined sludge for paper production (RSI 030305), effluent sludge (RSI 030311) and waste paper rejection (RSI: 030307). Impure papers have a high concentration of chlorine and when incinerated they produce dioxins that are totally harmful to health.

– Another waste stream related to the paper sector is sludge from the production of Kraft pasta (LER 030309), which can be physically valued at the cement factory, but which is currently not possible to manage all that is generated, and which will require special authorisation from the Basque Government for landfill. In 2018, 109,000 tonnes were reached.

– Black and white steel slag (LER 100201 and 100202). Landfill sites may not accept it for construction sites. The Order obliges the black and white slags of the steel industry to be "valued" and enables waste found after recovery to be dumped. In practice, what the order says "to value" is to confuse with concrete in cements. Cement mixed with slag is used in road construction to level the ground. According to data on waste dumped in landfills in 2018, the implementation of this measure would result in a reduction of almost 140,000 tonnes of white and black scum per year in landfills. On the other hand, these residues are contaminated and along with the cement the contamination will spread on the grounds here and there.

– Construction and demolition waste may be recovered in mobile installations, but the rejection or “rejection” that remains unvalued must be commuted to the approved fixed installations for further recovery at fixed installations. Almost 130,000 tonnes of this type of waste were dumped in landfills in 2018 (LER codes 170101, 170102, 170103, 170107, 170904). Gypsum is the toxic material that prevents the reuse of construction and demolition residues, and both gypsum and non-gypsum achieve a very high or almost zero recovery of these residues.

– Sludges from the urban sewage treatment plant should be recovered and landfill will require special authorisation from the Government. In 2018, 7.8 tonnes were recorded.

– Sands and portions of iron castings (green moulding) (LER 100906, 100908, 100910). Its valorization in cements for clinker production is also proposed. However, the Order indicates that the three CAPV cement plants cannot respond to most of this type of waste. In 2018, 1111111,000 tonnes were registered. These wastes also need special authorisation from the Basque Government for landfill.

– Detailed vehicles. Once the cars are moved to the graveyard of the cars, the parts that can be reused are removed and, after passing through a kind of press, they are moved to the landfill in a compact way. The order states that "only the removal fractions of this waste from the authorised secondary demetalisation facilities shall be allowed into landfill." But it also says that it cannot be rigorous in that standard, because in the CAPV there is not enough capacity to value this type of waste. Special authorisation from the Basque Government will be needed to bring this type of waste to landfill. In 2018, 109 thousand tonnes were reached.