Poland in spat with Germany over claims of illegal waste increasing risk of fires

euronews (in English)

A fire at a Polish landfill site has brought attention to the county's waste management policies and claims that waste is being illegally brought in from Germany.

Transcript

00:00 Last month's huge fire at the landfill site in Zielona Góra is at the centre of an ongoing

00:05 dispute over Poland's waste management policy.

00:08 Inadequate storage and treatment, along with illegal waste loads, have become literally

00:11 a burning problem in the country.

00:13 Many accuse those in power of negligence.

00:16 "We were short of 20 million to use it.

00:19 The consequences for the environment, the costs we will have to pay for the reclamation of

00:24 the land, bringing it back to this state, the security, can be ten times higher.

00:29 We have a catastrophe, an ecological one.

00:31 We have warnings to all services that do not inform us about the actual state of the environment.

00:37 Only after a week, the first message appeared to be careful with the plums we have in our

00:42 gardens."

00:43 It was after the fire that the Polish Ministry of Climate filed a complaint with the European

00:47 Commission regarding 35,000 tonnes of illegal waste shipments from Germany.

00:51 It's the first step before applying to the European Court of Justice.

00:55 "The decision-makers, the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany do not feel

00:59 comfortable with taking this waste away.

01:01 So we wanted to solve this matter by way of a court-martial, but we failed.

01:06 Therefore, according to the law, each state of the European Union has the right to file

01:10 a complaint with the European Commission.

01:12 We did it for other states.

01:14 Here, the European Commission has three months to analyze and respond to this matter."

01:18 Christopher Stolzenberg from the German Ministry for the Environment has commented, saying

01:24 returning illegal shipments is the responsibility of the federal states.

01:28 He added, however, that the fact that illegal waste shipments from Germany are taking place

01:33 is of great concern to them and that the ministry remains committed to improving the prevention

01:38 of illegal waste shipments in the EU.

01:41 The case of the landfill in Gielinagora put the problem of illegal transport and storage

01:46 of waste in the spotlight.

01:48 Some observers say it's a bigger problem than people realize.

01:52 [applause]

01:55 "There are now over 400 such warehouses in the country.

01:59 Of these, about 140 are places where only hazardous waste is found.

02:04 More and more journalists raise this issue.

02:07 Officials have also been struggling with this for a long time, so I hope that this tendency

02:13 to fight environmental prejudice, here strictly fighting hazardous waste, will develop

02:20 and more of these warehouses will be exposed, but also more will be utilized."

02:25 Due to the fires at landfills, the government is considering providing more support to local

02:31 communities in waste disposal.

02:33 The officials will certainly feel increased pressure to act now, ahead of the elections.

02:39 Magdalena Chodowlik for Euronews from Gielinagora.

02:42 (whooshing)

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