Every year Europe exports millions of tonnes of waste to developing countries, and not all of it legally. Cyril Fourneris explores EU efforts to combat the illicit waste trade and initiatives to make better use of it in Europe.
The rubbish bag that you toss in the bin, or even your old phone, may end up on the other side of the world. Every year, Europe exports millions of tonnes of waste to developing countries, with potentially adverse impacts on the local environment.
In this highly lucrative business, it is estimated that a third of shipments are illegal and criminal organisations are making billions. The European Union has therefore decided to limit waste exports and encourage recycling across Europe.
An alarming case of illicit household waste trafficking is well remembered as the “Italian waste” affair. The facts date back to 2020. Nearly 300 containers full of waste arrived at the port of Sousse, in Tunisia. Civil society played a crucial role in obtaining the return of much of the waste to Italy, and a number of judicial sentences on both shores of the Mediterranean.
A thriving toxic market
Many grey areas remain in relation to this case, and illegal waste trafficking is still going on. This year, Italian customs seized another 82 tonnes of waste on en route to Tunisia.
Maidi Karbai, a former member of the Tunisian parliament has been sounding the alarm for years: “The Basel Convention requires that certain types of waste cannot be imported. But some reports say that certain ports, such as the port of Bizerte, have become hubs where they can import waste and also export it to other continents and other African countries,” he says
Waste management is a thorny issue in Tunisia. The country has launched a major modernisation plan, but in practice waste is often buried unsorted in huge landfill sites. Some are controlled, others are illegal. The Road to Green visited one in the southern suburbs of the capital, in the company of Heikel Khomsi, an activist from the AMIS environgmental group.
“You can see the water stagnating and then becoming polluted,” Heikel says, pointing to a narrow stream of filthy water. “You can see the colour, it’s not clear. So it’s infecting the water table. The problem is that this is a wetland, so it’s an area where you can’t put rubble because it stops the water circulating. And above all, no household waste, because it gives off what we call leachate, which is even dangerous.”
EU crackdown on illegal waste
A new European regulation has just come into force. Countries that are not OECD members, such as Tunisia, will have to prove that they have the capacity to treat waste sustainably in order to receive it. The export of plastic waste outside the EU will be banned. The regulation also includes new tools to combat these eco-mafias.
These new tools will be deployed in ports like Genoa in Italy, one of the Mediterranean’s main shipping hubs. Customs officers here are at the forefront of the fight against illegal waste trafficking More than a million containers pass through these docks every year. Some of this waste is exported under false customs declarations.
