A fire broke out at Surovina waste management site in Tezno on Monday, prompting about 250 firefighters to work overnight. According to 24ur, this is the third and the biggest fire that broke out at the site in the last two weeks.
About five thousand tons of mixed waste designated as “alternative fuel”, including plastic, tyres and waste textiles, was stored in a 3500 m2 hall, built following a vast 2013 fire. Unofficially, the cause of the most recent fire that broken at about noon this Monday was self-ignition.
Almost all of the waste, as well as the hall’s roof, which collapsed inwards, burned in the fire. By now it has already been taken out, although firefighters continue to look for smouldering spots hiding under the charred garbage.
Maribor’s Mayor Saša Arsenovič emphasized that Surovina wasn’t a local governments company but a private waste management enterprise.
In 2018 Gorenje sold the company to Eko Surovina, which is in ownership of Rastoder Ltd, the company owned by the banana tycoon Izet Radtoder. The company then changed its name from Surovina Gorenje to Surovina LTD.
In a press release the Ministry of Environment said today that they regret that another fire occurred at a waste collection facility, and that it is aware of the pressing issue of the packaging waste piling up in Slovenia, an ongoing problem for the past several years.
Meanwhile citizens of Tezno are signing a petition in which they point to the air pollution these waste fires cause. “How much longer are we going to tolerate the pollution of our environment? Were we ever asked to give permission for dumping sites of two large companies (Surovina and Snaga) to be placed nearby our community?” they wrote in their petition.
