The Government’s intention to change the licensing model for the treatment of hazardous waste was confirmed this Friday in a note from the Ministry of the Environment, which, however, does not question the risks of the decision indicated by environmentalists.
“The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Action, based on the evaluation of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), intends to change the license model for the treatment of hazardous waste”, indicates the note in response to questions from the agency Lusa about an alert from the environmental association Cero for the risks of a possible alteration of the national system of treatment of this waste.
According to the note, the change “implies abandoning the exclusive model, allowing the entry of new operators” and “the no extension of current licenses of the two CIRVER [Centros Integrados de Recuperação, Valorização e Eliminação de Resíduos Perigosos] regulations in force”, but “all safety requirements and protection of the environment and human health” will be maintained.
The two hazardous waste treatment centers, managed by Ecodeal and Sisav, that won a public tender for this purpose, are located in the municipality of Chamusca (Santarém).
It adds that it is intended that the current CIRVER “can maintain their activity, in light of the legal regime that will be approved shortly”, without clarifying whether the changes avoid the risk of “20% of hazardous waste in Portugal” they can be left “without destiny”, which according to Zero is admitted by the APA itself, in charge of the application of environmental policies in the country.
But neither does it contain any comment on the increase, to which environmentalists refer, in the difficulties faced by environmental authorities in overseeing the sector due to “the possible proliferation of various hazardous waste treatment units throughout the country, as a result of the change proposed by the Government.
The lawyer Jorge Castanheira Barros, “first co-author of the popular actions in course against the co-incineration of hazardous waste”, points out that they have always praised the creation and efficient operation of the existing CIRVER, “in the face of the co-incineration of hazardous waste that is coming being practiced in the cement factories of Souselas/Coimbra da Cimpor and Outão/Setúbal da Cecil”.
In a note sent to Lusa, Castanheira Barros regrets that “we have been waiting for about a year and a half for the North Central Administrative Court to rule on the appeal that the group of Citizens of Coimbra that fights against the co-incineration of hazardous waste substances filed against the ruling of the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Coimbra of August 2021, which was favorable to Cimpor and the Ministry of the Environment in relation to the co-incineration of said waste at the Souselas cement factory”.
To clarify the issue, the Zero association said it had requested a meeting with the Secretary of State for the Environment, after sending a letter on the subject to Hugo Pires in April.
Source: Observadora
