The Romanian authorities have managed to stop a total of 16 shipments of illegal waste at the border, most of them coming from Germany, Austria, and Hungary, environment minister Cristiana Pasca Palmer said at DigiFM.

“Nearly 300 tons of illegal waste were to be introduced in the country under the green waste code, but the transports were stopped due to an excellent collaboration between the Environment Guard and the Customs,“ the minister said, reports local Digi24.

According to her, the waste was supposed to go to several Romanian companies from several areas in the country, especially in the southeast part. One company alone was to get nearly 40% of the illegal waste.

When asked if this case is about an illegal business with ramifications in Europe, the minister said: “Exactly.”

“The law allows the import of waste, but only waste that can be capitalized, recycled. We can’t import waste that can be eliminated, and needs to be deposited in landfills. In this case, under the pretext that the waste could be capitalized, they were importing waste that would end up at the landfill,” Cristiana Pasca Palmer said.

The Romanian authorities opened a criminal investigation in this case.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com