PSD warns of negative impacts of Volta on urban hygiene of Leiria

Nthe meeting of the municipal executive, the social-democratic councilman Nuno Serrano said that they have received photographs of situations, especially in the center of Leiria, with “containers and ecopoints turned over and scattered packaging, people to stir containers in search of bottles and cans”, and complaints of “dwellings and traders about dirt and nuisance”.

Recognizing that this is an environmental issue and a matter of public hygiene, Nuno Serrano stressed that the system “also reveals vulnerable people using packaging as a source of income”.

“ We know that the Volta is a European obligation and an important system for an environmental scourge, which is plastic waste,” he said, stating that the system has triggered problems in several cities in Europe, including Lisbon.

According to Nuno Serrano, this “is not a problem of the municipality [of Leiria], but it is a problem to which the municipality should be aware”, defending the need to “identify the critical points in the municipality” and the strengthening of “cleaning in these places”, which should be monitored.

On the other hand, the Social Democrat pointed out that it was necessary to “guarantee social responses in conjunction with Social Security” and particular institutions of social solidarity.

“The Volta system is good, we are not against the system, it is a European obligation” and, although there are problems in Leiria, these “are not as serious as in other cities,” he said.

Claiming to be a “call for attention”, Nuno Serrano reiterated the need to identify and monitor critical points, and “give social responses to people” who, due to their vulnerability, “use this as a means of subsistence”.

In the answer, the alderman with the environment pelouro, Luís Lopes (PS), said that the system is a measure implemented by the government, and its assumptions are not wrong, because it is “more an incentive” to the recovery and recycling of waste.

“ The difficulty that we are all going through, especially urban spaces, has to do, effectively, with the people who seek the containerization for the removal of packaging and then the return in the Volta system and with this have some economic advantage ", said Luís Lopes.

Luís Lopes added that the municipality is identifying “the places under more pressure”, referring also to being a security issue, because people may fall into an ecological island.

“The surface containerization is easier to review, but the sites are being monitored both by the Environment Division” and other teams that accompany in social matters, to see if these people are already referenced and whether municipal intervention is necessary.

Luís Lopes clarified that “concern has to do with the safety of people and the management of waste”, clarifying that the removal of waste, with the placement in the environment, is “practically a daily situation” that the municipality is resolving, since “within the urban space the scans are daily and the collection is also”.

Last week, the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Coins (PSD), asked the Government (PSD/CDS-PP) to cancel the Volta system, considering it generated “an unprecedented social drama”.

The next day, the Minister of Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, refused to cancel the system, refusing it to be responsible for the “social drama” of people to rummage in the garbage to collect bottles.

“Social drama is independent of Volta. It is a social drama that is related to poverty, that is related to the homeless and that will seek some way of having some income using these bottles ", said the ruler.