The Madrid City Council, governed by PP and Citizens, ended up giving in to the pressures, among them from the Community of Madrid, and Valdemingómez will assume “temporary and exceptional” management of the waste of the Commonwealth of Este, formed by 31 municipalities , among which is Alcalá de Henares.

The decision of the City Council has been taken in extremis , a few hours after the closure of the Alcalá landfill, which was to be closed today after being clogged, which would have left the waste of more than 800,000 people without destination.

The delay in making the decision was mainly due to the frontal opposition of Citizens in the City Council, since the first mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, did accept to assume that burden. The vice mayor, Begoña Villacís, on the other hand, considered that there were "other alternatives" before the Valdemingómez waste plant. Finally, yesterday, he gave his arm to twist, starting, yes, a pact to the Commonwealth with good conditions for the City Council.

The Commonwealth accepted "all" the requirements of the Consistory, as explained by municipal sources. Thus, the agreement is based on "reciprocity." That is, when the Loeches plant, which will replace the Alcalá plant, is in operation, Valdemingómez will send "the same amount of household waste it has received."

The agreement will be extended for 12 months, with a maximum extension of six. 12 months is precisely what is estimated to take to complete the works of the Loeches installation, which will be, according to the president of the Commonwealth of the East, Javier Rodríguez, also mayor of Alcalá, "the most modern in all of Europe."

The third point of the agreement is that a cap of 220,000 tons will be admitted in those twelve months. The Commonwealth also undertakes that only household waste from home collection is treated, "excluding hazardous or unauthorized treatment." "Waste must arrive duly identified", the agreement states.

Finally, the City Council of the capital will not pay a single euro for the treatment of Henares waste. «The Commonwealth of the East will be responsible for the transfer of waste from the PTV to the Loeches Complex and for the management of these facilities without cost to Madrid».

The municipal government will request from the Community of Madrid a study on waste management in the rest of the associations so that this situation does not occur again in the future.

The decision, which is effective as of Saturday, was adopted after several meetings held with the Community of Madrid, following the formal request of the Minister of Environment and Land Management publicly urging that Madrid take over the waste of the after receiving the report of the regional government that shows that the only viable and legal alternative, technically and environmentally was Valdemingómez.

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