Illegalities in waste management do not always involve an international trafficking like the one uncovered last week coming from France. Often the route is much shorter and offenders do not even need to change counties to achieve economic benefits at the expense of endangering the environment and human health. This is the case of the network that operated between two companies in Badia del Vallès, a landfill thirty kilometers away, and land in Cerdanyola del Vallès, now owned by the Consorci del Parc de l'Alba. The defendants are awaiting trial.

An investigation by the Guardia Civil, Europol and the French Gendarmerie has uncovered a network of illegal waste trafficking that, originating from France, was being dumped in various locations in Catalonia. For now, the pointed-out sites are Sant Esteve Sesrovires (Baix Llobregat), Pujalt (Anoia), Rubí (Vallès Occidental) and Riba-roja d'Ebre (Ribera d'Ebre).

The figure of 46,000 tons of waste from France illegally dumped in Catalonia that came to light this Monday could end up being anecdotal compared to the total number of kilos of garbage that could be revealed when the investigation is over, according to sources close to the case. The dumpings of the so-called Franger case, which the Guardia Civil has explained so far, mainly affected the municipality of Sant Esteve Sesrovires, in Baix Llobregat. However, sources close to the investigation consulted by ARA add Rubí (Vallès Occidental), Riba-roja d'Ebre (Ribera d'Ebre), and Pujalt (Anoia) to the provisional list of affected municipalities.

Currently, nearly a third (31.7%) of the waste generated ends up in one of the 25 landfills available in the country. However, according to the targets set by the European Union, these controlled landfills should only be the final destination for a maximum of 10% of municipal waste. Although government sources have positive assessments of waste collection and treatment in recent years, the data show that Catalonia is still far from meeting European targets. Given this scenario, one of the measures the government is proposing to close the gap involves closing half of its landfills.