Thursday, February 24, 2022 - 10:08

Delays in export of rubbish sees waste build up in Gibraltar

by MEGAN STRINGER
Due to delays in securing paperwork needed to export and transport rubbish to the recycling centres in Spain, there is currently 6,000 tonnes of waste built up at the tip here in Gibraltar.

According to Spanish press, there is approximately over 3,000 tonnes of waste now built up on the Rock due to the interruptions in exporting the rubbish across the border.
In January 2020, PANORAMA previously reported that Brexit could put Gibraltar’s cross-border waste deal in jeopardy. The article stated: “A hard Brexit that hampers cross-border fluidity could place the future of Gibraltar’s €1.2 million per year waste deal with a Spanish company under threat.”
“At present all of the Rock’s municipal waste, around 30,000 tonnes a year, is sent to Sur Europa, a landfill site in Los Barrios. But the Gibraltar Government is searching for alternatives should frontier fluidity take a hit post-Brexit, despite assurances within the cross-border Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Environmental Matters.”
PANORAMA asked questions to the Government, to find out just how much waste is built up on the Rock, alongside an update of the current situation regarding the delays.