Top environmental official says over 500t of waste, including medical waste, burned at Brazi

Chairman of Romania's National Environmental Guard (GNM) Octavian Berceanu said on Wednesday, at the Eco Burn waste cremation platform at Brazi, Prahova County, that over 500 tonnes of hazardous and non-hazardous waste, including medical waste, have recently gone up in flames, agerpres reports.

"This fire could cause substantial environmental damage, we have monitoring stations. We want to start an investigation to see what waste burned inside. It was hazardous and non-hazardous waste. When I say hazardous I mean paints, toners, oils; non-hazardous - various waste from hospitals, expired medicines, things they use and have expired in the hospital area and in the area of medicines and other waste. The incinerator is still burning and the whole structure is close to collapse," said Berceanu.

He specified that inside the hall there were about 550 tonnes of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. A pending investigation in this case will find out the route of the waste and, implicitly, the actual impact on the environment of this fire.

"The incinerator did not work, because utilities there were stopped in January. The irony is that it was to receive business licence that would have restored its access to utilities precisely this week," Berceanu said.

The head of GNM showed that in 2020 at Eco Burn Brazi, five inspections were performed, and this year three more have been performed, with fines of 415,000 lei having been issued for non-compliant storages, violations of waste storage legislation, waste management and registration as well as of the provisions in the environmental permit.