Prosecuted for the "
illegal operation
" of two waste collection centers in the Bouches-du-Rhône and for the pollution generated, a couple has been indicted, announced Tuesday in a press release the public prosecutor of Marseille Dominique Laurens.
The two people, who operated these recycling centers in Allauch and Peypin, north-east of Marseille, were remanded in custody for one and under judicial supervision for the other, said the public prosecutor.
Beyond "
the non-conformities
" of the installations, which recovered "
waste of all kinds
", the public prosecutor's office of the Marseille regional environment center aimed at the conditions for collecting this waste, coming from the department and further afield, "
including including major economic operators
".
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The two defendants continued to receive and collect waste, despite “
multiple formal notices
” from the Prefecture, to the point that the dumps had reached “
several tens of thousands of cubic meters
”.
A fire on the Peypin site, "
surrounded by a forest
", required a long intervention by the firefighters in 2021.
The judicial information was opened in particular on the heads of "
irregular or non-compliant operation of classified installations
", "
abandonment of waste by their producer or holder
" and "
irregular management of waste causing a substantial degradation of the environment
”.
The penalty incurred can be up to three years in prison and a fine of 1.5 million euros.
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This case is the illustration of a phenomenon that has been growing for several years in the Paca region, between waste collection centers in violation and illegal dumping.
So many practices that constitute a waste for recycling, but also a risk for the environment.
In 2017, while on average in France 270 kilos of waste per year and per inhabitant were not recycled, in Paca the pile of non-"
recovered
" garbage climbed to 400 kilos per year and per inhabitant, according to the Observatory regional waste.
Marseille, the second city of France, spreads over 240 km2, more than double the area of Paris, and is not spared by this phenomenon, to the point that the town hall recently set up an environment brigade .
The Marseille public prosecutor's office had created, in March 2019, a Local Delinquency Treatment Group (GLTD) dedicated to the fight against illegal dumping.