In connection with a series of fires in landfills and waste management plants, the Polish government took steps.

– “I recommended that in connection with the fires on landfills, complete today’s meeting of the Council of Ministers with a point regarding this matter. We can not allow criminals to pollute the environment and destroy our health and our children’s health.” – said Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

In recent months, dozens of large fires in landfills have occurred in Poland. Most fires in landfills break out on weekends. By the end of May there were several dozen such fires. In the last days, landfills in Zgierz, Trzebinia, and Wszedenia near Mogilno were burning. Fires also broke out in waste sorting plants – eg in Warsaw or Olsztyn. Henryk Kowalczyk, Minister of the Environment, admitted that the legal system regarding waste is insufficient. For last two months, draft legislative changes have been prepared, including concerning the criteria for issuing permits in waste management and increasing the powers of the Inspection of Environmental Protection.

– “We managed to remove fuel mafia from Poland. In the case of waste it will be similar. (…) It can be assumed that there are a number of irregularities, not some accidental fires “– said Morawiecki.

Kowalczyk informed that a state register of companies operating in this industry is kept, and there will be a register of waste. There will also be severe administrative fines for violation of the regulations, corresponding to the volume of turnover, the amount of waste deposited. The amount of penalties is to be doubled.

The Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Administration have declared joint actions of the police, border and customs services, Road Transport Inspection, and Environmental Protection Inspection on roads used by cars transporting waste to Poland.

Experts also speak about waste mafias.

General Adam Rapacki, a former Deputy Chief Police Commander and former deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, spoke on radio rmf.fm on the current situation in the waste management sector. The general is of the opinion that the waste industry has been and is threatened by various types of crimes, frauds, and recent fires are the result of a lack of control in this area.

– “This problem is complex, these are issues related to illegal waste transport, storage of this waste and collection of fees. These are the problems associated with fictitious recycling, where this waste was often simply put into excavations, gravels or simply burned. It is also a fraud in declaring a certain level of recycling of waste and extorting money in this way. This is the whole area of pathology, which requires much more control from state institutions. “– said Rapacki.

The general believes that using the term “waste mafia” is inappropriate in this case. These activities are not conducted by a large organized group, as in the case of, for example, fuel mafia. These crimes are committed by small groups, local businesses.

Dr. Tomasz Wojciechowski – Member of the European Compost Network Council, plenipotentiary of the North Wielkopolski Chamber of Commerce, court expert of the District Court in Poznań in the field of environmental protection and the creator of the first Polish online waste exchange – said that the problem of fires may arise from unpropriate laws.

– “More than 62 fires this year is not a coincidence. It is a planned, purposeful procedure, using imperfections in the functioning of our entire economy, as well as detailed provisions that make us not enforce the existing law. Legally everything is clear, you know what you can not do, but if the rules are a little bit bended, the effects are what they are “– said Wojciechowski.

It should be added that recently, not only waste that was in the “gray economy” was burning, but also those in legally operating and holding all permits of plants owned by private sector, local governments and companies supervised by local government.

On 1 January 2016, a ban on storing waste with a calorific value of more than 6 MJ / kg came into force. However, as it results from the Waste Act: Art. 25. Item 4. Waste, with the exception of those destined for landfilling, may be stored if the need for storage results from technological or organizational processes (…), but no longer than for 3 years. It is not difficult to notice that starting from 2016, three years expire at the end of 2018. Companies that have been storing the calorific fraction since the entry into force of the ban have another half a year to find a solution for the management of calorific waste fraction.

An additional problem is the fact that the Chinese market is closed for waste imports (since the beginning of 2018, China has ceased to import 24 types of waste). Rising rates for landfilling additionally worsen the situation of these plants. (last year, the rate was PLN 120 / tonne for landfilling of unsorted municipal mixed waste, and in 2020 this rate will amount to PLN 270 / tonne).

The production of alternative fuel from calorific waste is also not solving the problem at the moment. Not all waste management plants can boast of the continuity of RDF management and meet the exacting requirements of practicalyy the only one recipient of RDF – a cement plant.

There is a lack of solutions on the market that would help to develop a calorific, combustible waste fraction. There is no doubt that installations that manage waste ecologically and locally, such as pyrolysis installations fit perfectly into the current niche market.

May 30, 2018

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http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20130000021/T/D20130021L.pdf