They had serious doubts, the journalists of Capital wanted to get to the bottom of it. By equipping certain waste with GPS beacons in the Nice metropolis, the magazine’s teams discovered that they were illegally exported to Spain. Revelations made before the broadcast of their investigation, scheduled for Sunday evening on M6, which led the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi to “seize” the public prosecutor on Friday so that he “can assess whether there is a criminal offense “.
In the report, that 20 minutes was able to watch, the Enso company, holder of a public contract concluded with the metropolis since 2021 to take charge of “non-hazardous run-of-the-mill”, is directly implicated. One of the trucks leaving its waste collection center in Contes, in the hinterland of Nice, and on board which one of the beacons was loaded, is filmed up to an open dump in Zaragoza, in the north east of Spain. And this, without any cross-border waste transfer authorization having been issued by the Ministry of Ecological Transition.
The community would have been “widely abused”
This company, which is responsible for “recovering”, “nearby”, “and in approved channels”, the 8% of waste produced in the metropolis (out of a total of 600,000 t per year) which cannot be treated on the spot, would have thus “widely abused the community” by not responding “neither to the contracts nor to the constraints” which were imposed on him, denounced Christian Estrosi. Responding to an emerging controversy, the elected official explained that he feared that these were “generalized practices” in France. In the company of the deputy (Horizons) Philippe Pradal, he said he wanted the opening of a parliamentary commission of inquiry on the subject.
“I also seized the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes for violation of the regulations on the cross-border transport of waste, since this falls under his authority. And also the regional prefect, since it is the Dreal [Direction régionale de l’environnement, de l’aménagement et du logement] who must give a stamp when there is a transport of waste, ”he also announced on Friday.
The mayor and president of the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis had, as of Thursday, indicated that he had “staged an investigation by the General Inspectorate of Services” of the community and “summoned the service provider to provide him, by [ce vendredi]additional information on the traceability of the waste entrusted to it”.
How many tonnes of waste concerned?
Because if the M6 cameras have successfully demonstrated that at least two trucks went to dump metropolitan waste in Spain, the community suspects that others may have followed the same path. “In the report, 44 t are concerned but this company is responsible for recovering 17,000 to 18,000 t of waste per year”, for two years, said Olivier Brouilly, the general manager of services for the metropolis.
In addition to the market for the treatment of run-of-the-mill traffic, concluded for a provisional amount of 33 million euros, the company Enso has also obtained contracts for bulky waste collected door-to-door for an additional 6 million, according to Phillipe Vardon. The chosen one Reconquest! of the city and the metropolis denounces an “ecological and economic scandal” in a press release. And asks Christian Estrosi “to urgently receive the presidents of the opposition groups to provide them with all the necessary explanations on the revelations of the program Capital but also on the services, and the conditions of selection, of the company”.
In a letter addressed to the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes and to the prefect of the region, the elected environmentalists demand for their part “the opening of an administrative investigation” after these revelations which seem “to indicate a process of laundering of waste as well as a waste trafficking in an organized gang”. “This case seems to be a profound attack on the environmental code, as well as on European law”, they denounce.
The fault of a subcontractor according to the company
Depending on the results of the investigations carried out internally, the metropolis indicates that financial sanctions or the termination of the contract with Enso could be decided in addition to possible legal proceedings. The Nice public prosecutor’s office, contacted by 20 minuteshad not yet announced the opening of an investigation on Friday evening.
Also requested by 20 minutes, neither the Marseille-based company nor its president Jérôme Kester had responded at the time of publication of these lines. In an article published by Nice morningthe latter ensures that the fault lies with a subcontractor with whom he “stopped collaborating”, since “last December 22”.
Last year, the Nice Côte d’Azur metropolis launched the construction of a new energy recovery unit (UVE) to replace current “aging” equipment. This work will enable it, by 2026, to process 100% of waste locally.