One may surmise that Western sanctions against Russia are failing if Europeans are now turning to trash burning to heat their homes. This comes in the wake of Polish households burning trash just to stay warm as sanctions on Russia backfire.
To ease the biggest energy crisis in a generation, Poland has temporarily waived air quality regulations so that residents can burn coal for home heating till next April. Polish houses are burning more coal and wood to counter the rising prices of electricity and natural gas, but some people are also burning trash to remain warm.
Paulina Mroczkowska, a Polish citizen, told Bloomberg that as the NatGas scarcity intensifies and the cost of life skyrockets, she has already seen people using garbage to warm their homes.
“It’s so bad this season that you can smell trash burning every day, which is completely new.
“Rarely can you smell a regular fuel. It’s scary to think what happens when it really gets cold,” Mroczkowska said, a resident of Warsaw, the capital city.
As temperatures drop throughout Central Europe, winter is drawing near.
… signaling the start of the heating season.
And this sums up the dire situation in Poland as a result of the Russian intervention in Ukraine, which has disrupted energy markets and caused Western sanctions against Moscow to backfire:
Last month, Law & Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the country’s most powerful politician, suggested people do whatever it takes to keep warm. He told supporters at a rally in Nowy Targ, southern Poland, that “one needs to burn almost everything, except for tires and similarly harmful things.”
— Bloomberg
Some municipalities across the nation have relaxed environmental regulations for the coming winter and beyond. The ruling Law & Justice Party-controlled Malopolska regional assembly in Krakow has postponed a decision to burn coal and garbage until 2024.
According to recent predictions from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Europe might be in for a bitter winter. As supplies are running low, people are scurrying for coal and firewood.
“People are scared and they are collecting anything that can be used for burning,” Piotr Siergiej, spokesman for a network of environmental activists called Polski Alarm Smogowy — or Polish Smog Alert, said.
One mayor informed the local TVN24 news program that the nation is already experiencing a trash panic:
“We’re seeing a significant drop in garbage collection, especially when it comes to materials than could at least in theory be suitable for burning such as paper, cardboard and packaging.
“We’ll fine those who are trying to poison us and our children.”
One may surmise that Western sanctions against Russia are failing if Europeans are now turning to trash burning to heat their homes.
DID Biden just say to the Europeans – ‘hold on for just a little longer and Global Warming will solve your Winter Household Heating Problems – just Trust The Sanctions everyone’ . ……. ….shalom to all
I have a wood/coal burning stove to heat my home. Been using it for the past 10 years. Each heating season sees me burning anything that burns into my stove. Trash (I live alone so there is very little), empty milk jugs, any plastic wrap, cardboard, etc.
My heating costs are about one third that of my neighbors. Sometimes they complain about the soot from the coal, but I just tell them to wait until it rains.