Romanian environment minister asks for state of alert in Bucharest after illegal waste fires

The alert will allow authorities to set up filters and 24/7 monitoring, enact faster intervention measures, and coordinate their response, the interim environment minister announced, according to News.ro.

Diana Buzoianu said that Sinteşti has four access areas and would therefore be easily monitored.

“We are asking for control over the carriers and over the route of the waste, together with the police and the Environmental Guard. We will ask at the meeting, which we hope will be convened by the two prefectures, for permanent monitoring, I repeat, 24/7, at the four access points in the Sinteşti area. We will ask for the effective involvement of the city halls and the local police,” Buzoianu said.

The Ministry also held meetings with mayors in the area, and some said that they could not allocate even a single person for the monitoring of fires, according to the minister.

Sinteşti is a “constant hotspot” of pollution that exposes millions of Bucharest residents to toxic particles every day, Buzoianu stated.

“Until we understand that the mafia behind this community makes tens of millions every year, while we are not willing to allocate 20 people, 30 people who can mobilize for several months to stop the illegal burning in Sinteşti, until we understand all these things, we will continue to have the same criminal phenomenon for years to come,” the interim minister stressed.

According to the official, burned waste can have up to 5 to 40 times more PM10 emissions than wood burning.

The minister announced that she has a draft government decision under public debate and will submit it in record time, which would limit the possibility for individuals to give more than 500 kg of metal per year or 500 kg of electronic equipment to collectors.

“Today there is no such limitation and what we see is that communities involved in crimes can take absolutely fabulous quantities, of more than several hundred tonnes every year, to the same collector or to several collectors. How could a person, legally, bring 500 tons of metals to an operator in a single year? I think the answer is absolutely obvious. It cannot be done [...] without actually having an entire well-organized criminal system behind,” Buzoianu said.