Ricardo Furtado, head of the company Electrão - Collection and Reuse that accompanied the operation, explained that the removal of the waste, which was spread over several warehouses of an area of ??three hectares, owned by Caixa Geral de Depósitos, lasted several weeks.

“The operation of machinery and transport took place for five weeks. Between five and ten people were permanently at the site, with removal and packing machines,” he said, adding that previously there was work to characterize the waste and determine where to transport it.

The complexity of this operation "was the transport bridge, which involved 62 heavy trucks", which took the waste to various parts of the country, he said.

According to Ricardo Furtado, of the 1,600 tons of hazardous waste, “1,300 were CRT (cathode ray tube) glasses”, which were used inside old televisions and are considered hazardous because they have lead.

"Due to the conditions in which they were stored for so many years, the solution found was their deposition in a landfill for hazardous waste," he explained, saying they were taken to the Chamusca landfill.

The same fate had about 250 tons of mercury lamp glass, which contains mercury, also considered a hazardous waste.

"We could not find a solution for recycling these wastes because they were there for many years, were contaminated, were mixed," said the official.

The remaining tons were "a mixture of various wastes, such as printing consumables and small electronic equipment, which were separated and sent to various recycling companies in the country," he added.

Ricardo Furtado stressed the importance of the operation, which allowed "the removal of an environmental liability that had been dragging on for many years in that area".

“The population can sleep a little more restful from now on,” he said, adding that there will be a second phase of work to remove non-hazardous waste, such as wood and construction and demolition debris, which will no longer be in charge of Electrão.

In June, Quercus had been concerned about “evidence of illegal waste abandonment” and “suspected mercury and lead contamination” at the premises of the former Portuguese Electric Furnace Company and asked for clarification from the Ministry of Environment and Energy Transition.

At the time, Quercus said it was surprised “that the Centre’s Coordinating and Regional Development Commission, aware of potentially contaminated residues with heavy metals such as mercury and lead inside these facilities, only in May this year applied fines to the waste holder ” Caixa Geral de Depósitos.