One sack, two, three, fifty, hundreds.
Placed as if it were an immense trench or a retaining wall, hundreds and hundreds of white bags with thousands of kilos of ashes from containers in the Spanish capital are found in the open air - some of them broken - on the outskirts of the Valdemingómez Technology Park, located in the Madrid district of Villa de Vallecas.
The images, to which EL PAÍS has had access, are of Enrique Villalobos, president of the Regional Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Madrid (FRAVM), who could not believe it when he approached the facilities on October 4.
Ten days later, he has filed a complaint with the Nature Protection Service of the Civil Guard (SEPRONA), to which this newspaper has also had access.
A spokesperson for the Madrid City Council's Environment area attributes any type of responsibility to the regional government, which, however, points directly to the management of the mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida: “This is a municipal facility.
And the company has a direct relationship with the Consistory to carry out the correct daily management of the ashes, ”says a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment.
Hundreds of sacks of ashes, in Valdemingómez. Enrique Villalobos (FRAVM)
President Villalobos denounces the breach of Law 22/2011 on organic waste, approved in 2011: “Waste will not generate risks for water, air or soil, nor for fauna and flora.
They will not cause discomfort due to noise or odours;
and will not adversely affect landscapes or legally protected places of special interest”.
These measures, the law states, must be consistent with the strategies to combat climate change.
"This is dangerous," Villalobos says by phone.
"If the emissions from the incinerator are already dangerous, with this it multiplies for all Madrid residents."
He says that the least that can happen with these thousands of kilos of ashes is that the soil be contaminated.
"But in the same way that the wind from the Sahara brought sand to the Spanish capital a few months ago, covering the sky in red, the same can happen with the ashes," he points out.
Villalobos also recalls the second report being prepared by the regional association of neighborhood associations that he chairs.
For a year, they have been taking samples of plants from the surroundings of Valdemingómez to examine the quality of the air and the flora that surrounds this controversial landfill.
They are then sent to Brussels for examination by an environmental NGO.
"If these microorganisms enter the body," describes the report that analyzed the samples last year, "it is very difficult for them to be eliminated."
The larger the amount,
A spokeswoman for the City Council's Environment area assures that these hundreds and hundreds of bags of ashes are not her responsibility, because these bags are outside the Valdemingómez Technology Park.
"This plant is built and operated by the Urbaser company, which operates with an integrated environmental authorization granted by the Community of Madrid," she says.
But in the Ministry of the Environment they deny the Madrid City Council: "This private company has a concession contract by public tender with the Madrid City Council for the management of the collection of the ashes generated by Valdemingómez."
Therefore, "the company has a direct relationship with the Consistory to carry out the correct daily management of the ashes," insists the regional spokesperson.
"The conditions in which they are stored are unfortunate," says María Ángeles Nieto, spokesperson for Ecologists in Action, by phone.
“This is utter irresponsibility.
Also, some are broken.
They are not waterproofed.
They are being poured into the field and into the air.
We have communicated it several times, both to the City Council and to the Community”.
A very controversial incinerator
Madrid burns most of its waste in Valdemingómez.
Here ends the rubbish of the more than three million people from Madrid.
More than 3,000 tons per day.
From the hiding place in the garbage can in the kitchen, to Valdemingómez.
From the container on the corner of the street, to Valdemingómez.
On June 4, 2020, just one year after the arrival of the popular José Luis Martínez-Almeida at the baton of command of the Cibeles Palace, the contract of the only incinerator that this waste center has in the capital expired, which was not signed. again until 2022. That is, for two years, Almeida has been burning tons of garbage without signing contracts.
All this is added to the opacity of the City Council in the publication of the reports of the waste center.
Right now, on the municipal website, the last one in force is that of 2020,
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