The transport of the remaining 10 tons of chemicals from the OHIS chemical industry complex near Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia awaits the permit from France. The chemicals would then be transported to an incinerator in Lyon. Four countries, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and Germany through which the dangerous chemical will be transiting, have already received the documents and are waiting for France to issue its permit, and they will immediately approve the transit.
Around 4.6 tons of initiators and 5.2 tons of unknown chemicals should beincinerated in Lyon. These are the last quantities of the dangerous materials out of the 64 tons of chemicals that consisted of methanol, acrylonitrile monomer, but also other unknown chemicals that laid dormant for decades in the chemical industry’s yard and buildings and posed a great danger to people’s health and the living environment.
The chemicals had been stored in a warehous in OHIS warehouse and are packed with an ADR packaging and are ready to be shipped. The last shipment of chemicals to be incinerated was hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic and the closure of borders.
In the meantime, the agreement with the Swiss incinerator Valorec Services, where the incineration was firstly planned, expired including the permit for international transport of dangerous chemicals. At the moment, the Ekocentar 97 company is securing new permits in order to close the process of cleansing the toxic materials produced or stored in OHIS.
