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On Tuesday 16 December 2025, Luxembourg's Environment Agency reported that a cross-border control operation targeting illegal waste transport was carried out along the Franco-Luxembourg border last week.
The large-scale operation took place between 14:00 and 17:00 on Thursday 11 December 2025 at three border crossing points within the territory of the GECT (European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation - EGTC) Alzette Belval. French and Luxembourg authorities inspected more than 300 commercial vehicles and issued nineteen warnings or fines.
In a press release, the authorities reported that large quantities of waste cross the border daily within the GECT Alzette Belval territory, affecting its thirteen constituent municipalities (eight in France and five in Luxembourg) and their 107,000 inhabitants.
The Environment Agency recalled that any transfer of waste to another country (even in small quantities) requires prior authorisation. The authorities noted, however, that this prohibition is often disregarded, resulting in the massive dispersal of waste in the environment or in treatment facilities not intended for it, such as waste from foreign companies disposed of at household waste centres.
In order to curb these illegal waste transfers, the Luxembourg Environment Agency, together with the Luxembourg Customs and Excise Agency and the French authorities, regularly conduct border control operations and occasionally join forces in large-scale operations.
On 11 December, at the initiative of the GECT Alzette Belval, the Luxembourg and French authorities jointly carried out such an operation. Approximately ten French and 20 Luxembourg officers were deployed to inspect commercial vehicle loads.
French officers conducted checks in Audun-le-Tiche, near the Lidl supermarket, on the D16. Luxembourg's authorities carried out inspections in Belvaux-Sanem, on Rue de France, in the car park opposite the school, and in Rumelange, on Rue des Martyrs, before the border crossing.
On the Luxembourg side, nineteen vehicles received warnings, including nine penalty notices, for violations related to national and cross-border waste transport. Fines ranged from €145 to €500. On the French side, two vehicles were subject to legal proceedings and fined €150 for illegal waste transport.
The vehicles inspected were mainly transporting construction waste, including cardboard, electrical cables, concrete, inert waste, wood and glass.
The authorities involved said the operation also served as a reminder of the need for proper administrative registration with the various authorities when transporting waste across borders.
