get rid of waste that we generate has a cost. For this reason, the growing trend is to promote recyclable materials and reduce the waste that must be eliminated in processes that not only waste materials and energy, but can often entail risks for the environment and health if they exceed certain limits. And if that has happened, that is precisely what a Badalona court is investigating in relation to the urban waste incinerator in Sant Adrià de Besòsmanaged by the public company Tersato determine if the disposal of waste has exceeded the legal limits and has endangered the health of people.
The investigation originated as a result of a complaint from the neighborhood platform air net which gave rise to the opening of a case for alleged ecological crime by the environmental service of the public prosecutor’s office directed against eloi badia, Councilor for Climate Emergency of the Barcelona City Council and president of the company, and the head of operation of the plant. And while this is a very specific technical issue, linked to the temperature at which waste should be burned to minimize health risks, it is Clarify whether between 2015 and 2019 the plant exceeded the emissions of particles and polluting substances as a consequence of burning the garbage at a temperature lower than the required one, which is determined by means of an algorithm, and if this attitude was tolerated by the technical and political leaders. An extreme that if confirmed would be very incongruous on the part of some political leaders who have made their crusade against pollution their greatest hallmark.
The administration in charge of controlling that the emissions after burning comply with the legally established parameters is the Generalitat of Catalunya. And during the course of the case the Climate Action Department has sent to the court the records of some measurements that would support the thesis of the complainants, that is to say that the contamination would have exceeded the established limits on numerous occasions. The Generalitat, however, has attributed these crazy figures that would certify the exceedance to a massive ruling with the decimals in the transcription of the data and maintains, as Badia did in his appearance before the judge, that in no case have they been exceeded legal limits.
However, beyond what the courts may end up ruling, what is worrying about this case is not only that the contamination limits may have been exceeded, but also the recognition made by the Generalitat itself that it does not have the capacity to automatically compare the data from companies that burn waste. The data did not trigger any alarmswhich demonstrates, and the administration has assumed it, that the possible excesses of contamination by these companies are beyond their control and that the audit would only take place ‘after the fact’. With this acknowledgment, which implies a clear abandonment of functions, it is admitted that control is being left in the hands of the companies that burn the waste and that are potentially polluting and are expected to regulate themselves. And this is something that is not acceptable.