For decades, the British territory of Gibraltar has had an agreement to dispose of the approximately 30,000 tons of waste it produces annually to the Spanish landfill site Los Barrios, north of Algeciras, a few kilometers away. However, with Brexit (the United Kingdom left the European Union) the agreement on waste disposal also ended, with the result that thousands of tons of waste accumulated in Gibraltar for several months in 2022 (Gibraltar is less than 7 square kilometers in size).
After about two months of bureaucratic procedures and complicated applications, the local government was able to start sending its waste back to Spain at the end of February: however, the problems of the territory with the consequences of Brexit do not seem to have been completely solved yet.
Back in midJanuary, environmental group VerdemarEcologistas en Acción reported that around 6,000 tonnes of rubbish had been dumped together and unsorted near a beach east of Gibraltar’s headland known as The Rock (“The Rock”). While awaiting the release of procedures to find a new agreement to ship waste to Spain, the UK had sent machines to crush and compact the waste to Gibraltar; in the meantime, other options for the disposal of the waste have also been considered, such as B. accumulation in the network of underground tunnels or shipment to the UK for disposal there.
Then, when the new agreement with the Spanish government arrived, it took two weeks to clean up the area where the garbage had accumulated: the work was completed a few days before the arrival of a strong storm that carried up to 4 waves brought meters high and ran the risk of a lot of waste being released into the environment.
According to environmental organizations, the situation was managed just in time. If the storm had hit Gibraltar while the garbage was still in the area, the impact on the environment and marine life “would have been significant,” said Antonio Muñoz, a member of VerdemarEcologistas en Acción. The waste problem has been solved for the time being, but since the Spanish government’s permit is valid for one year, it will have to be renewed again in early 2023, with the risk of further red tape.
The entry into force of the new deals created by Brexit has caused numerous inconveniences, particularly for the UK, from additional transport costs, to the fuel crisis related to the lack of hauliers, to issues related to fishing rights in the English Channel.
Gibraltar, where in 2016 96 percent of the population (of around 33,000 inhabitants) had voted to remain in the European Union, has for several months been at the center of parallel discussions aimed, for example, at preserving freedom of movement between the territory and Spain and others Minimum privileges precisely because of his special position. Despite theI obligate myself together stated by the parties involved, negotiations are still ongoing.
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