The activity of the management of hazardous waste in Spain sector falls 28% in the first half of 2009

The fall of industrial production in Spain has led to the management of hazardous waste has experienced a decline of 28% during the first half of 2009, according to a study conducted by Asegre (Association of business managers of special resources and waste). Industrial production has registered a rate of - 20.7% for the same period, which has resulted in a younger generation of industrial waste.

Another cause has been the lower construction activity, which has affected the work of decontamination of soils. They have also affected cost saving measures in the industry, case of the lower activity in cleaning and maintenance of industrial facilities, which in the past four years had a significant activity.

This decline in activity in the sector was also due to the delay in the management of certain hazardous waste, looking for his travel in time in order to manage them in coming years, case of PCB-contaminated equipmentwhose activity fell to 71 per cent, given that the law envisages on December 31, 2010 deadline to manage all this waste.

The main conclusion that could be drawn from these data is the excess capacity in all lines of treatment, that is if the stoppage of new projects and seriously compromising the survival of many of the existing facilities. In this sense, Asegre does not share the support for the establishment of new plants in some plans of waste which develop the autonomous communities. Asegre also considers it necessary to continue to support producers with services of management of waste of quality and respond to their specific needs, but in order to avoid distortion of competition with regard to the companies that properly manage their waste.