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Containers with toxic waste/ Kosovo Customs denies: We have not exported hazardous waste

2024-08-22 21:49:00, Aktualitet CNA

Containers with toxic waste/ Kosovo Customs denies: We have not exported

The Kosovo Customs has reacted in relation to the ship with toxic waste, a matter for which the Durrës Prosecutor's Office has started investigations. While emphasizing that it is difficult to determine the accuracy of the course of events, the Kosovo Customs emphasizes that there is no export of hazardous waste .

"Albanian customs has referred these goods as zinc concentrate, exported from a company registered in Kosovo to a Swiss company. Since the Kosovo Customs does not have access to any official report, it is difficult to determine the accuracy of the course of events, as far as the search in our export data, we have found that:

There are no hazardous waste exports corresponding to shipments of the nature reported in the media.

Exports have been identified that are referred to in the statement to the media from the Albanian Customs, and the product in question, as has been pointed out by the Albanian Customs, is zinc concentrate and not waste. For this product, the owner of the exporting entity has provided test reports from the well-known industry testing company SGS", says the Kosovo Customs.

"Zinc concentrates have been continuously exported and unlike the reporting of the Albanian and international media, it is not about waste (electric arc furnace dust as Bloomberg refers), but about zinc concentrate extracted from Trepça", the statement continues.

Customs says that the exported zinc concentrate product has a concentrated composition of Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), etc., and as such is not classified as waste. Legislation deriving from the Basel Convention on Hazardous Waste applies to the waste and not to the raw material being exported.

"Similar exports are constantly made by the industry of the Republic of Kosovo and there have never been claims for the classification of these products as hazardous waste", adds the customs.

Kosovo Customs has stated that it has opened an extensive investigation on this issue and will examine all relevant issues with these shipments./ CNA