The Groß-Gerauer district council unanimously reiterated its refusal to bring construction waste with a maximum radiation level of ten microsieverts from the demolition of the Biblis nuclear power plant to the Büttelborn landfill.

In the special session requested by the SPD and the left on Monday, the dilemma in which the Greens find themselves once again became clear.

Because it was Hesse's Environment Minister Priska Hinz and Darmstadt's District President Brigitte Lindscheid (both Die Grünen) who vehemently advocated at a citizens' meeting in Büttelborn last week to bring the waste from Biblis to Büttelborn and to oblige the landfill operator to accepting 3200 tons of waste.

The Greens, although in a coalition with the SPD and the Left Party, had not signed the motion for the special session either, only the printed matter.

Green parliamentary group leader Franz-Rudolf Urhahn said on request that he had considered a special session superfluous.

In his speech, he shifted part of the blame to federal politics.

Still, he emphasized, "We don't want the Biblis waste going to landfill." He cautioned, "We're at the fifth level of politics here and there's very little we can do about it."

"The nuclear industry is driving us ahead of it"

Urhahn drew parallels to the protest against the expansion of the Frankfurt airport, which was also enforced from above against the will of the residents.

Several talks by the district Greens in Wiesbaden and in Darmstadt on the subject of landfills were only marginally successful.

"The nuclear industry is driving us ahead of it," said Urhahn.

RWE has earned a lot of money in Biblis and now wants to act sparingly when dismantling the power plant and therefore reject expensive dumping of the construction waste in an underground landfill.

At the same time, Urhahn pointed out: "What we don't want here, we can't expect others to do either." And in view of the threat of lawsuits, he prophesied: "We will get judicial rights where we actually need a political decision." By that he meant a decision at the federal level,

Biebesheim's Mayor Thomas Schell (SPD), who is also Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Riedwerke responsible for the landfill, emphasized the politicians' support for the citizens' protest.

He criticized the short deadlines that the district president had given the Riedwerke for a statement in order to arrange for the rubble to be dumped at the Büttelborn landfill.

When Hinz claims that the building rubble that has been cleared cannot be used in road construction, but has to go to a suitable landfill, "then it can't all be that harmless".

What to do with the rest of the 3200 tons of waste?

Several speakers also criticized the Bergstraße district, which had known at the latest since the start of dismantling in 2017 that waste was going to a landfill.

Nevertheless, he did not bother about appropriate opportunities, although both Biblis and the district had benefited from the lavish trade taxes for decades through the district and school levies.

It is also unclear where the rest of the 3,200 tons of waste should be deposited if the Büttelborn landfill is closed in 2030 - as planned.

Schell and other speakers called for the rubble to be temporarily stored at the Biblis power plant site until a solution that was acceptable to everyone was found.

Christiane Böhm (Die Linke) spoke of "a trivialization of the entire matter", while Büttelborn's mayor Marcus Merkel (SPD) pointed to fires at the landfill.

Nobody knows how to deal with a fire with radioactive waste.

Everyone is now eagerly awaiting the decision of the Darmstadt regional council after December 16, when the deadline for the hearing expires.

Information from RWE and country missing

Meanwhile, protests against the dumping are not only taking place in the district council.

In the meantime, the town of Weiterstadt in the Darmstadt-Dieburg district, which has a population of 25,000, is also fighting against the dumping of building rubble.

At a citizens' meeting, a woman from Weiterstadt complained that the municipality had not yet received any official information from RWE, the state of Hesse or the Darmstadt regional council about the planned dumping of the slightly radioactive waste at the Büttelborn landfill, even though Weiterstadt was as close to the landfill as Büttelborn .

Weiterstadt's Mayor Ralf Möller (SPD) has meanwhile assured Büttelborn and the Groß-Gerau district of his support in protesting against the dumping.

He fears that the west wind will have negative effects on his community.

The SPD state parliament vice-president Heike Hofmann has also spoken out against the dumping of the rubble from Biblis.

The plans are "unacceptable".