The crimes of the environmental entrepreneur Wolfgang Wurzer raise doubts among the district councils of the Erding and Freising districts as to whether the municipalities can continue to work with the Wurzer company. In public, the Greens parliamentary group in the Erdinger district council expresses its distrust of the company Wurzer Umwelt. The Greens in the district council say: “Our trust in the Wurzer company has been permanently damaged.”
Wolfgang Wurzer committed environmental crimes in his time as managing director of the company Wurzer Umwelt in the years 2016 to 2020 and manipulated a tender. The district court in Erding imposed a penalty order against him in November 2022. Wurzer received a suspended prison sentence of ten months and also had to pay back half a million euros in proceeds from criminal transactions. He continues to deny the rigged tender.
The Greens expect clarification from the disposal company from Eitting in the Erding district. Among other things, they want to know what the Wurzer company has done to remedy alleged abuses within the company. “Here we are particularly interested in the correct handling of waste disposal and the further handling of tenders. According to the lawyer, the fact that the company has ‘committed itself to purification’ is not sufficient for us.” Wolfgang Wurzer says: He already resigned from his position as managing director in August 2021. The company worked through all the events that were the subject of the investigation, and Wolfgang Wurzer himself took responsibility for his crimes. “That’s good again.”
The behavior of the Erding district office in the Wurzer affair also raises questions for the Greens. The authority’s environmental agency checked the Wurzer company a total of 15 times between 2018 and 2022, but was never able to discover any defects. The environmental agency had announced all controls to the company in advance, “so that contact persons are present on site and the relevant documents can be kept and, if necessary, viewed.” According to the district office in Erding, this is a standard procedure.
The Landshut public prosecutor’s office confiscated documents from the environmental agency
The parliamentary group of the Erdinger district Greens met this statement with skepticism. They would like to know from District Administrator Martin Bayerstorfer (CSU) whether this form of control is effective in order to discover violations. The Greens also want more detailed information as to why the Landshut public prosecutor’s office took documents from the environmental agency with them in the preliminary proceedings against Wurzer. District administrator Bayerstorfer does not want to comment personally on the request of the SZ to the affair Wurzer. The district office in Erding announced that the authority would answer the questions from the Greens, and that the responsible committee of the district council had already been informed in a non-public meeting.
The Wurzer company disposes of waste in the greater Munich area on behalf of many municipalities. In Erding, Wurzer takes care of organic waste, among other things. The company takes care of the disposal of asbestos for the Munich waste management company. The district of Freising has commissioned Wurzer Umwelt, among other things, to collect bulky waste and waste wood from the district’s recycling depots.
“You have to see if you can continue working with Wurzer.”
Doubts are also growing in the Freising district council as to whether the district can continue to entrust tax money to the Wurzer company. District Councilor Manfred Reuss from the ÖDP explains: “You have to check carefully whether you can continue to work with Wurzer.” The Mayor of Mauer and District Councilor for Free Voters Georg Krojer also has concerns. He says the Wurzer company should take measures to prevent crime from happening again. Mainly because the Wurzer company is important for the citizens of the Freising district to get rid of garbage there. Krojer says: “It would be bitter for us if we didn’t have that anymore.”
The allegations against Wurzer also alarmed part of the SPD parliamentary group. District councilor Beate Frommhold-Buhl says: “My confidence has been shaken, we have to discuss it in the district council. There’s no getting around it.”
The Langenbach mayor, Susanne Hoyer (free voters), is exercising restraint. She says: “One must not start a hunt!”
And what does the Freising district administrator say? Helmut Petz (free voters) does not want to comment. The reason: The Freising district office is currently investigating the business relationship with the Wurzer company.