A platform made up of more than 20 civic and environmental entities have demanded that the administrations make a greater effort to prosecute the trafficking of plastic waste, a practice that is increasing according to the Civil Guard. The agents of this security body have undertaken an extensive operation to deal with this serious environmental problem.
These entities (among them, Friends of the Earth, Rezero, Greenpeace, Ecologists in Action or GOB) describe the volume that this illicit traffic has reached as "scandalous", according to the findings revealed in the Operation Plastics of the Guard Civil.
That is why they ask the parties and institutions to solve the enormous deficiencies that Spain shows in terms of selective waste collection, subsequent treatment and control of its management throughout its chain-
The Civil Guard, with the collaboration of Europol in the so-called Operation Plastics, has investigated eight people for the alleged illegal traffic of more than 5,700 tons of plastic waste and has carried out a total of 141 inspections of companies that manage this waste.
The Civil Guard speaks of an "alarming increase in illegal waste traffic in recent years" and classifies it as one of the environmental crimes linked to organized crime in Europe, due to the few penalties it entails, the difficulty of control and the wide margin of benefit
After what was revealed by the Civil Guard, these entities estimate that "it is once again demonstrating that we are not only talking about a management problem, but that there is an alarming lack of control and a total absence of transparency."
The Civil Guard carried out "inspections of managers of plastic waste or in containers belonging to them and prepared for export."
In the province of León, a company has been identified as clandestinely storing a large amount of plastic waste "from other autonomous communities with the aim of eventually abandoning it or setting it on fire."
For this reason, the platform of entities estimates that this phenomenon "is added to that of fires in treatment plants and landfills, which is also growing exponentially in our territory since China and other Southeast Asian countries put a veto on the importation of plastic waste from Europe”, they add.
“The figure of 5,700 tons is not equivalent to one or two isolated cases, but to a systemic practice within the management of waste in Spain. It is no longer just a question of 60% of municipal waste ending up in a landfill or an incineration plant, as the official statistics say, but also a part of what is counted as recycled and of which we do not know its magnitude , it is indeed being sent out the back door to the global South. It is a major scandal”, proclaim this group of entities that are considering using the legal route again to demand responsibilities and obtain urgent solutions.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has precisely warned Spain that, unless there is a radical change, it will continue to fail to meet the recycling and preparation for reuse targets in 2025.
Through its Early Warning Report, carried out by the European Environment Agency, Brussels places Spain in the group of nine Member States that are far from reaching the goal of reusing and recycling at least 55% of municipal waste in 2025 and warns of the serious abuse that exists in the use of the landfill (52% currently when in 2035 this figure must be below 10%). It also specifically indicates that the percentage of separate collection of plastics, managed by Ecoembes, is extremely low (20%).
The Commission recommends that Spain introduce "control mechanisms that ensure compliance with the regulations by local and regional administrations and the Extended Responsibility Systems of producers to meet recycling targets", which is more than evident after revealed by the investigation of the Civil Guard. At the same time, Brussels asks that, above all, "preparation for reuse at municipal level and packaging reuse systems be supported."
