Fibreglass waste from wind turbine blades and aircraft parts was illegally transported from Germany to a small Czech municipality, prompting investigations and calls for a European solution, Euractiv reported.
The first waste trucks arrived in Jiříkov, a village in the north-east of the Czech Republic, just before Christmas, with others following in January. Village mayor Barbora Šišková said she discovered other cases in other municipalities when she brought the issue to public attention.
The German company ROTH International shipped plastic debris to the Czech company Piroplastik, which claimed to recycle plastic materials. However, an inspection revealed that it was fibreglass, which was almost impossible to recycle.
Czech authorities seized five lorries at the site, with officials from the Czech Environmental Inspectorate coordinating efforts with German authorities to recover the waste, as Czech Environment Ministry spokeswoman Veronika Krejčí stated that the plastic “demonstrably comes from Germany.”
Czech Environment Minister Petr Hladík also visited Jiříkov on Monday to address unauthorised transboundary waste shipments at the European level. The incident with the Czech village “truly has a ‘European’ dimension,” Czech MEP Tomáš Kubín added, urging the EU to take the issue seriously.
The fact that the renowned company ROTH International GmbH, which boasts about recycling wind turbines, has to resort to shipping waste across the border says a lot.
Kubín stressed that this was a broader issue that affected more than just two countries, adding that some European nations banned the landfilling of turbine blades. The ban forced operators to seek alternatives, including circumventing legal oversight.
