Nearly 20 thousand tons of slag waste from the zinc smelting industry, which was stored in Tuplice (Lubusz Voivodeship), was transported back to Germany. “The area has been cleaned up,” Minister of Climate and Environment Paulina Hennig-Kloska announced on Wednesday on the “X” platform.
“According to the Provincial Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in Zielona Góra, 19,800 Mg of slag waste from the zinc smelting industry was transported from Tuplice. The waste heaps were returned to Germany. The area was cleaned up. This is how effective diplomacy works,” the head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on social media.
In March, the minister announced that 20,000 tons of waste from the illegal landfill in Tuplica will leave Poland this year.
Exportation was supposed to start in August, but this did not happen. As the mayor of the Tuplice commune reported at the time, “it was not possible to reach an agreement on the storage of equipment and the installation of sanitary facilities.” And so, heavy equipment entered Tuplice on October 8.
– The trucks were loaded and took away the first part of the waste. Work related to waste disposal is ongoing. In the near future, in accordance with the arrangements with the German side, the company carrying out the work is to remove all indicated illegal waste that came from German to Tuplice – said Maciej Karczyński, spokesman for the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection.
Heavy equipment appeared in TuplicaCIEP
Tuplice are the first, but not the last
In 2015, inspectors from the Provincial Inspectorate of Environmental Protection in Zielona Góra carried out an inspection in Tuplica, during which they discovered illegally transported waste.
“It was then established that German entities were responsible for the illegal shipment of waste. Due to the lack of Germany's response to numerous letters from the Polish side, the waste in Tuplica was included in a complaint against the Federal Republic of Germany submitted to the European Commission in 2023, and then a complaint to CJEU. In a reasoned opinion, the Commission stated that waste from Tuplice should be returned to Germany,” the Ministry of Climate and Environment said.
It is estimated that there are approximately 35 tons of waste illegally imported from Germany in Poland. According to the ministry, Tuplice is one of seven towns from which waste originating from illegal cross-border shipments from Germany will be removed. The remaining landfills are located in Stare Jawor (Lower Silesian Voivodeship), Sobolewo (Lower Silesian Voivodeship), Gliwice (Silesian Voivodeship), Sarbia (Greater Poland Voivodeship), Bzów (Greater Poland Voivodeship) and Babin (Greater Poland Voivodeship).
Main photo source: x.com/hennigkloska