Houthalen-Helchteren (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The local government of Houthalen-Helchteren opposes Group Machiels’ plan to reopen the REMO landfill, closed since June 2020 after 2,000+ complaints. Hanne Kellens urges strict oversight.
As VRT News reported, the local government of Houthalen-Helchteren, a municipality in the province of Limburg, Belgium, is against the plan to reopen the REMO landfill. According to Het Belang van Limburg, the government has said no to the new plans by Group Machiels.
Hanne Kellens, who is in charge of the environment, said that the government doesn’t want the landfill to restart. They remember the problems from the past. When the landfill was still open, people complained a lot. There were over 2,000 complaints, mostly about bad smells. People in the area were not happy with how the landfill affected their lives and the environment.
Will the group Machiels get permission to restart the REMO landfill?
Even though the local government said no, it’s not the final decision. The Flemish government will decide if Group Machiels can restart the landfill. The Flemish Environment Department will make the call. Kellens hopes the regional authorities will listen to the local government and the people who live there.
She said reopening the landfill wouldn’t help the area. The Flemish government will look at a new report about the environment from Group Machiels. She mentioned that they will have to decide if they care more about waste needs in the region or the complaints from the past.
“We only give advice, but the decision is not ours. We hope that this will be taken into account, and we also want to have the necessary discussions for this,”
Kellens says.
The local government in Flanders want to protect the health of people living nearby. If the landfill opens again, the government will make sure it follows very strict rules. There will be no smell allowed. The government says no new work will start without strong safety measures.
They will constantly check the air, soil, and noise for problems. They mentioned that the goal is to stop any environmental dangers before they start. The government wants everything to be open and honest.
Adding to the situation is a legal problem with Group Machiel. A big hole, 10 meters deep and covering 4 hectares, was dug at the REMO site. This happened when the government had cancelled the permit for such work. Now, the company is facing legal action.
The illegal digging has made people lose trust and want tighter controls. Because of this, the local government is working to reduce environmental problems. They also want to make sure that past mistakes are dealt with and that any future building has all the necessary legal and environmental approvals.
“Group Machiels wants to fill that pit with waste, but we are absolutely not in favor of that. We do see an opportunity to transport mine stone there, for example. Our companies cannot go anywhere with that and mine stone is a lot less polluting for the soil. So we see that as a possible solution,”
Concludes Kellens.
The REMO landfill in Belgium shut down in June 2020. The decision came after the government said no to plans to make the landfill bigger. With the space full, they had to stop dumping waste. Before it closed, the site handled about 300,000 tons of waste every year.
This waste was stuff that couldn’t be recycled or burned. A lot of it, over half, came from outside the Limburg area. There haven’t been any health problems for nearby residents since the landfill closed.
