More and more Madrid building firms recklessly dumping waste

Madrid is green, modern, and committed to protecting the environment. EU legislation is enthusiastically implemented, and the capital's residents are keen recyclers, so much so that they happily divide their rubbish up into different categories, making it all the more easy to dispose of and reuse.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of the construction industry. The Madrid authorities say that over the last 18 months the illegal disposing of rubble and building debris has reached critical proportions. An increasing proportion of the estimated five million tons of waste brick and concrete produced by demolition and construction work each year is not only not being recycled, but is instead being dumped into holes in the ground.

Firms are asked to pay 10 euros per truck of rubble, 90 percent of which is recyclable

Giant slag heaps are now visible among the shanties near the M-40 beltway

Javier Columbral, the head of Agescam, the association that represents Madrid's privately run recycling plants, has sounded the alarm. "We have gone back to the situation of 20 years ago; contractors are dumping anywhere and everywhere."

He says that building firms and construction contractors, squeezed by the crisis, are refusing to pay to have their rubbish properly disposed off. The capital's refuse recycling centers charge 10 euros per truck of rubble, around 90 percent of which is recyclable: bricks, piping, cable, plastics, and other materials. But the evidence suggests otherwise: recycling plants are instead accused of charging just four euros, and allowing trucks to dump their entire load into pits, or simply into growing mountains of mixed refuse. Two plants, one in the northeastern suburb of Fuenlabrada, and another in the eastern town of Rivas Vaciamadrid, have been reported to the Madrid authorities.

They both deny the charges, insisting that all waste is thoroughly sorted and collated. But video and photographic evidence suggests otherwise. They show lorries driving past the vast recycling plants and tipping huge amounts of waste building material into slag heaps and vast pits.

"We are happy to show anybody round our plant," says a spokesman for Salmedina, the company that runs the Rivas recycling plant, the region's largest. "It is very difficult to hide these kinds of practices," he adds.

"There are rumors about these kind of practices," admits Carlos Rivero of the Madrid regional government's environment department. "There are a lot of claims and reports in the sector. Because of the crisis, there is a lot of competition between construction companies, and they are very aggressive," he says, adding that the regional government is dealing with hundreds of complaints regarding illegal waste disposal, and regularly fines companies. He also admits that the fines do little to discourage the practice.

The regional government's environment department says that it carries out inspections "periodically," and that its rules are "very strict." But more than 70 illegal rubbish tips have been discovered over the last five years. Some are relatively sophisticated, such as one found in the Madrid dormitory town of Alcalá de Henares, but in the Sureste natural park, between Arganda and Getafe, dozens of illegal tips operate with impunity, many of them in river beds or protected areas. Another ruse construction companies use is to dump their waste in abandoned building sites, or empty properties.

Enterprising criminals have also set up disposal sites in abandoned industrial plants, from where they then ship waste out to other regions. Toledo is a popular destination.

But the epicenter of the clandestine waste industry is Cañada Real, to the northeast of the capital, which has long been occupied by illegal shanty towns, and is described as Europe's biggest drugs supermarket. There are several illegal tips here, charging as little as three euros per truckload of waste - no questions asked. The material is buried, the land flattened, and the land used again. Such is the volume though, that giant slag heaps are now visible in the area from the M-40 beltway. Families living in the Cañada Real make a living sorting through copper cable and other waste metals.

Environmental groups, along with companies who play by the rules, say that they have repeatedly reported the problem, supplying names, telephone numbers and other information, but that neither City Hall, nor the regional government is prepared to act. They add that the practice is creating a growing threat to the water table, as well as the risk that toxic material is being disposed off illegally.

Last week, Javier Columbral met with representatives of the regional government to tell them that his members, who abide by the rules, are facing bankruptcy.

Columbral warns that if rubbish tips that obey the rules do go out of business, the problem of illegal tipping will worsen. "These companies have invested huge amounts of money, but the volume of garbage has fallen dramatically since 2006, the high point of the construction boom. Many companies are in imminent danger of going out of business because of the combined effects of the reduction in the market and the illegal competition."