Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta is increasingly becoming an entry point for illegal waste from European countries which are offloading garbage in the East European country, according to official reports. .
More than a ton of illegal waste that was falsely labeled as used car parts arrived in the Romanian port of Constanta, authorities said Thursday.
Second-hand car parts
It was at least the third shipment of toxic waste to arrive in the port in eastern Romania this month.
The shipment of 1.1 tons from Norway arrived in Constanta on Wednesday. It had been falsely declared to the customs authority as second-hand car parts, but proved to be illegal waste, police said.
The waste was due to be shipped on to a company in northern Romania. Border authorities sent the waste back to Norway, they said.
Waste
In the same week, 25 tons of rubber waste were shipped from Britain to Constanta. The waste was seized on April 19 by customs police.
Police said the waste was imported by a firm in central Romania. It was also sent it back to Britain.
On April 7,some 65 containers shipped from Belgium to Romania arrived in Constanta. They were intercepted at the port and another Romanian port along the Black Sea coast by border police.
The goods were falsely declared to the customs authorities as used plastic waste, a statement said. Police said that the cargo claimed to be plastic waste, but was in fact wood, metal waste and hazardous materials.
The containers had been loaded in Germany, and the goods came from a Belgian company.
Loose coal
In a related incident, authorities said Thursday they had identified two large patches of black water in the port next to a boat that was loaded with loose coal.
Authorities have taken samples of the water and the coal on the ship for checking, News.ro reported.
The Coast Guard and border police approached the ship.
They said there were suspicions that the ship which belongs to a Romanian company had overloaded the vessel with coal.
