2018-05-29 17:23 update: 2018-09-26, 16:46
Government to take decisive action over recycling tip fires - PM PAP/Marcin Obara
The Internal Security Agency (ABW) has been notified about the recent recycling tip fires while the prosecutor general has been obliged to act and investigate the matter, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Tuesday.
In recent days, a series of recycling tip fires have been reported in various parts of the country, including one in Zgierz, central Poland, a tyre repository in Trzebinia, southern Poland, and last night, a tip in the village of Wszedzień, northern Poland.
The rubbish tip fires seem to be coordinated, the PM said on Tuesday after the government's meeting, stressing there will not be consent for such activities.
"I want to assure you that our services will treat this subject with great determination, very seriously," Morawiecki told a press conference.
He stressed that the fires were posing an environmental hazard and were a social problem related to health protection.
"We cannot fight with smog on the one hand, and on the other hand, allow our health to be destroyed through such environmental poisoning," Morawiecki stressed.
The PM announced he had asked the Environment Minister Henryk Kowalczyk for an action plan, a detailed proposal of regulatory changes regarding this problem."
He added that the government is also going to proceed with any changes related to the import of waste.
"It is very often the case that waste is imported for recycling, but we really don't know what actually enters the country," the PM pointed out. "We will change these regulations to give the environmental protection inspector proper control over it," Morawiecki declared.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, 63 rubbish tip fires have been reported this year, including 27 major ones. Last year, the State Fire Service recorded 37 such events.
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