- The Compañía de las 3 Erres, which closely monitors the issue of waste in Navarre, has strongly denounced the agreement signed between the Consorcio de Residuos de Gipuzkoa and the Comunidad de Residuos de la Ribera de Navarra.
According to this, from 2017 to 2019, Gipuzkoa would transport 75,000 tons of garbage to the treatment center of El Culebret in Tudela, paying 5.5 million euros per year for the service.
El Culebrete has a treatment center located in Tudela to channel the remaining fraction and, among other things, an infrastructure for biomethanization to generate methane with organic waste. It also has two other centres for the collection of packaging waste and industrial waste.
According to the company, "the agreement is born dead because the Joint Environmental Authorization granted by the Government of Navarra to El Culebrete provides for a management permit of 50,000 tons per year and 25,000 tons per year for biomethanization".
According to the 2015 balance sheet, the remaining 67,777 tons of the fraction entered El Culebret and 31,726 tons to the digester that directs the biomethanization process. In other words, the centre already receives more than what is allowed per year and would triple what is allowed from Gipuzkoa with letorkee: In 2017, 143,000 tons per year would be traded if the agreement were implemented.
3 Erres believes that this would violate the Foral Decree 93/2006, because if it had been granted for a certain amount in the past, the environmental permit and the current one would be much higher. The environmental permit should be changed, “and that is a very long procedure.”
The irregularities
The association says that it is not technically feasible for the digester to treat so many tons, and there are already irregularities in the center for this. The Consorcio de Residuos de Navarra requested an audit of El Culebret and it was found that 38.5% of the biowaste was dumped directly into the landfill because the digester does not have the capacity to take these amounts.
The company denounces that the GHK agreement occurred when the Government of Navarre presented the waste plan and that this is not in accordance with the plan; to accept this would be to accept that it is not necessary to classify waste in Navarre homes. If, according to the government plan, the selective collection of organic waste is to reach 50% by 2020, it makes no sense to implement such agreements: “It would only benefit more ‘incinerators like Culebrete’ and ‘Zubieta’, completely contrary to the principles and objectives of the Navarre Waste Plan.”