António Marques, one of the demonstrators said, “we don't know what's really in there but we do know asbestos is deposited there. The structure was created for inert materials, but it is now receiving industrial waste".

There are houses and a school only 300 meters away from the site, when the law that is in force says that landfills can only be built at a distance of 500 meters.

Questioned by journalists about the Sobrado landfill, the Minister of Environment said he would contact the North Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N) to understand what "can be done best in managing it”.

On 10 June this year more than a thousand people walked nine kilometres in protest against the landfill in Valongo, where various types of garbage are treated, "from sludge to asbestos", harming "the health of the population", the mayor, José Manuel Ribeiro, described to Lusa at the time.

A few days before the walk against the landfill, the PSD submitted a draft resolution to Parliament, recommending measures to the government to respond to the environmental problem at the Recivalongo landfill, which "has been the subject of various protests by the population, especially because of the danger it poses to public health and the odours it emits.

The social democrats referred to "several episodes of fire in the landfill" which, "most probably", damaged "the waterproofing screens with consequent contamination of water resources and soil”.