Iberboard commits to begin removing 15,000 tons of waste within 15 days.

AlcoverThe 15,000 tons of waste The waste that has been accumulating for years at the Iberboard factory in Alt Camp will begin to be removed within 15 days, according to the company's commitment. The plant is located on the Francolí River, right where the river forms the natural border between Alcover and Picamoixons, at the foot of the Prades Mountains. The residents of these two towns, who while the factory was operating had to endure unpleasant odors and noise and light pollution exceeding what is permitted by regulations, have been demanding the removal of all this waste since the company suspended its operations just over a year ago. They feared that a flood would sweep away all the waste—including toxic waste—or that a fire could spread and the flames would find devastating fuel.

During this time, four meetings have taken place, attended by around thirty people, including representatives of the company, representatives from the regional services of the Generalitat (Catalan Government), the Catalan Waste Agency, the Catalan Water Agency, and the mayor of Alcover, among others. The last meeting was in June and, as this newspaper has learned, was not very encouraging, as it ended without any agreement and no date to resume negotiations.

Iberboard is in the hands of a bankruptcy administrator, and company representatives argued in every meeting that they did not have its permission to use the money for waste removal. The workers who lost their jobs have received payments from Fogasa, the state's wage guarantee fund, which is funded by the payrolls of other employees, but it seems that some of the company's suppliers still have not been paid. Be that as it may, something has changed, because company sources have assured the mayor of Alcover, Robert Figueras, that they have already reached an agreement with a waste manager to begin the removal and have requested permission from the bankruptcy administrator to begin. The Department of Environment and Sustainability also has this same information. It is estimated that the cost of removing all this waste by truck exceeds one million euros.

If nothing goes wrong, the first trucks will begin appearing on November 1st along the C-14 towards Iberboard to thoroughly clean the plant. The operation could take five months. "The law makes it clear that it is the company that must remove all the waste and, if not, the Catalan Waste Agency must do so as a subsidiary," Figueras insists.

Constant non-compliance

The violations at this factory, whose CEO is Virginia Guinda, one of the vice presidents of the Foment del Treball employers' association, are endless. Thanks to the Transparency Portal, the newspaper ARA obtained the results of the annual inspections that the then Climate Action Department had carried out at the factory since 2018, and they all ended with the same conclusion: "Adequate compliance with the conditions set out in the integrated environmental authorization is not guaranteed." Poor waste management, noise and light pollution, and even uncontrolled dumping.

Despite all these violations—some considered serious—the penalties were initially minimal, such as a €900 fine for dumping into the river in 2022. The company paid some of these fines immediately and even received a 40% discount. To the point that the then Director General of Climate Change and Environmental Quality, Mireia Boya, admitted to the newspaper ARA that the law needed to be changed to make it stricter. "It's a way of doing things for many companies, because it's more profitable for them to pay the fine than to make certain investments," she said, referring to Iberboard. However, the regulations do provide for more drastic sanctions, which were never actually applied. The most expensive fine Iberboard received was for another breach: €1.6 million for failing to pay what it owed for CO2 emission rights.₂.

Over the years, local environmental groups, such as the environmental committee of the Casal Popular La Brecha de Alcover or the Geneta Ecologista, have warned about this situation and even denounced it, without success.