Representatives of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and other NGOs support the amendment to the Law on waste of August 14, which reintroduces an article that allows the co-incineration of non-recyclable waste. In an statement issued on Tuesday, the representatives demand the resignation of Violeta Ivanov from the position of chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Regional Development, after the MP requested that these legislative changes not to be enacted.
The statement says that currently, all of Europe incinerates and co-incinerates solid non-recyclable household waste which is being compressed as RDF bales. The bales represent an energy source for European countries. Thus, plastic containers contaminated with foodstuff and huge quantities of domestic and imported packaging (bags, casseroles, boxes, etc.) that turns into waste, can be co-incinerated as alternative fuel and not stored or buried into the ground.
The list of waste that cannot be recycled, but can be disposed of by incineration or co-incineration, includes diapers and absorbents, which are produced in huge quantities. This type of waste must be converted to RDF bales for co-incineration and not buried indefinitely. Even used oils, which are petroleum products, can be co-incinerated as to not be spilled into rivers, transforming the water into oil, thus causing serious water ecosystem damage. These oils should be put to good use.
According to the statement, "The amendments to the Law on waste are neither about the co-incineration LaFarge plant from Rezina nor about waste incineration import, which is forbidden. This law is about thousands of waste dumps that have been poisoning our lives for the last 30 years and about the fact that all previous governments have done nothing and absolutely nothing to solve the problem of waste management. Civil society initiatives to increase fines for irresponsible waste disposal have zero results, while civil society has been fed false promises and told that this is not the right time for change. This happened because the previous governments were afraid to lose popular support if they increased the environmental pollution fines.”
The signatories consider inappropriate for the Law on waste to return to the committee for further consultations which are redundant. Moreover, the signatories demand the resignation of Violeta Ivanov from the position of chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Regional Development, because "she does not offer constructive solutions for the waste problem, but blocks the initiatives of the ministry, including the initiative that bans asbestos importation”.
