On Wednesday morning the representatives of the Gipuzkoa communities met with the Environment Deputy of Gipuzkoa and President of the GHK, José Ignacio Asensio. After the meeting, they reported that the meeting agreed to consider the possibility of also managing waste of “commercial or industrial” origin. Urban waste is managed exclusively by the households and the GHK. In the context of the Zaldibar crisis, the Mutilva landfill has suddenly been closed. Since then, the only option for managing industrial waste in Gipuzkoa is the Epele composting plant. The other options are those outside the territory. "Coinciding with the imminent start-up of the Zubieta facility, Gipuzkoa has an infrastructure system that can help alleviate the consequences of the problem," he said.

According to the GHK, man-communities also manage industrial waste that is comparable to urban waste and deposit it into industrial landfills. These include commercial packaging, residues of agricultural or livestock origin or some deposited in garbigunes. Asensio explained that the meeting agreed “to analyse the flows and volumes of this type of waste by the GHK and to analyse the possibilities of diversion to the urban waste treatment infrastructure network in Gipuzkoa”. In addition to the Zubieta incinerator, he mentioned the composting plants of Epele and the packaging classification of Legazpi.

Exception?

Man-communities do not have competence for the management of industrial waste. Asensio has pointed out that it would be necessary to analyse, among other things, “what permits should be required” in order to take care of this waste.

As the journalist Iñaki Petxarroman in Berria has said, the integrated environmental authorisation of the Zubieta incinerator provides for this possibility, albeit temporarily and in exceptional circumstances: ‘Exceptionally, the environmental body may authorise in its facilities, on a temporary basis, other non-hazardous waste not included in the integrated environmental authorisation, which cannot be pre-treated in re-use and recycling operations in legal, special administrative or health or environmental emergency situations’.