Polish Supreme Administrative Court bans railway sleepers in private gardens

The Supreme Administrative Court (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny) upheld a decision that used wooden railway sleepers, impregnated and contaminated with oils, are classified as hazardous waste and cannot be used for private garden fencing. The ruling followed an inspection of a property in the village of Nowinka near Augustów in the Podlaskie region, where the owner had stacked two piles of sleepers on unpaved ground and used part of them to build a fence. The local voivodeship environmental protection inspectorate ordered the removal of the waste within 3.5 months at the owner's expense, and both the regional administrative court in Białystok and the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the owner's appeals. Violations can result in fines of up to 5,000 PLN, and additional penalties apply for unauthorized structures near property boundaries.