This weekend, Tunisia won a long-running David versus Goliath battle against Italy. After a nearly two-year legal battle, a consignment containing 7,900 tonnes of toxic waste that Italy illegally sent to Tunisia was returned to its source.
Sousse, a charming Tunisian coastal city, is most well-known as a vacation destination because of its beautiful beaches, sparkling turquoise sea, unbroken sunlight, and lavish resorts. It has recently been made famous by a more sinister reason: Since 2020, more than 200 large shipping containers containing 7,900 tonnes of toxic waste from Italy have been stranded in a port warehouse.
Between May and July 2020, 282 containers were shipped by the Italian company Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali from the port in Salerno, Italys Campania, to this Tunisian port. Soreplast, a Tunisian company that imported them, stated to customs that they contained scrap plastic from manufacturing processes. Soreplast promised it would recycle the plastic. They were found to contain hospital and household waste, which is illegal in Tunisia.
The Italian company SRAFond.Eco, a subsidiary of another company, sold its branch in 2008. The foundation of the company was established in 2008. In 2016, Salerno’s Anti-Mafia Investigation Dirate conducted a judicial investigation into both companies. Tommaso Palmieri, the owner of both companies was accused in a case where he led an organisation that recycled bulk materials. SRA was also included in an Italian Parliament report on the connection between the waste industry & organised crime.
5 Million contract
These containers were the first shipment under a 5 million contract to dispose 120,000 tonnes of Italian waste at Tunisian landfills. Soreplast was paid 48 cents per tonne.
213 containers were stored at the port, while the remaining 69 were sent outside the city. The containers and contents rotted away at these warehouses for more than a full year before being officially confiscated by the Tunisian government in July 2013. They and their pungent smells were to be kept in place for seven additional months.
The 28th of December 2021, Luigi di Maio, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, visited Tunis to meet President Kais Saied and to discuss this difficult issue. The Tunisian presidency released a Facebook statement at the end of the meeting, stressing the need to accelerate the repatriation and disposal of the waste as soon possible.
On February 11, an agreement was reached to return the rubbish back to Italy. In a statement that was posted on its Facebook page after the meeting, the Tunisian Ministry of Environment stated that “the signing this agreement is part the continuity of consultation between the two countries which began in 2020.” The statement continued, “Among other items, this agreement provides immediate return to 213 containers in its first instance, out 282 total, after 69 were involved with a fire.”
The ministry stated that consultations continue to finalize the return of any remaining waste after containers were damaged by a fire at the warehouse of the importers in the governorate Sousse. They didn’t provide any details on the condition of containers post-fire, or when any subsequent transfers might occur.
Important victory
Last Friday, 213 containers were loaded on a Turkish vessel chartered by the Italian authorities. The ship left Sousse on Saturday at 8 p.m. local time.
Only a few people were invited by the docks to view the event, including politicians from one network and members from one voluntary network. Rseau Tunisie Vert,An NGO that had fought tirelessly for this waste being sent back to Italy.
It was a very symbolic moment. Watching them load up the boat, and then seeing it sail away into night was incredible, said Nidhal Atia, a member of the network and co-ordinator for the environmental programme at the Heinrich Boll Foundation, Tunisia. He spoke to FRANCE 24,
This is a major victory for Tunisian civil Society. This was a different type of environmental battle than the ones we are used to fighting. This result will certainly increase the courage and will of the people to tackle such issues.
Italys dustbin
Local media first reported the news about the port’s waste mountain moldering. The population and local non-governmental organizations were outragedThey refused to let their country become Italy’s dustbin, according to the group.
This trade is both illegal and destructive to the environment. It is not acceptable to import wastes from Italy to Tunisia for disposal. Mohammed Tazrout (Greenpeace Middle-East & North Africa Campaigner), stated that waste disposal can cause toxic leaching and contributes to the degradation and health of the environment. a joint statementPublications by a variety NGOs.
After the battle became something of a David against Goliath over the past two years, the final result was the result a united protest by a number of international and local NGOs who kept constant pressure upon the Tunisian government, until they finally reached an agreement with the Italian government to return most of the containers.
We met with three successive governments ministers to force them into this result. Attia stated that after writing twice to the president with no response, we reached out again to international forces, such as the United Nations. It was a major campaign.
On December 21, 2020, Mustapha Larou, Tunisian Minister for the Environment was arrested. A total of 25 officials were also taken into custody. The list of suspects includes Larou’s chief of cabinet, the directors at the National Waste Management Agency, Environmental Protection Agency, customs officials, as well as the laboratory responsible for analysing foreign waste. It also includes Beya Ben Abdelbaki (Tunisian consul in Naples). One person is missing from the list, and indeed Tunisia, is Soreplast’s owner, who has fled abroad.
Attia said that we have been pressing the ministry for the environment to be more transparent for nearly two years. However, they have not shared the information they have until now. There has been no transparency regarding how the deal was reached so far. People have been arrested and are still waiting for their trials. However, we don’t know if we will ever learn how this deal was made.
Trafficking in waste to Africa
Lawrence Summers, then Chief Economist at the World Bank, was appointed in 1991. Signed a memoThis defense of decades-old practice of importing waste from the global north, where strict environmental regulations make disposal prohibitively costly for less developed countries, was defended by the UN.
Summers’ controversial memo stated that I believe the economic logic behind dumping toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is inexplicable. Summers later claimed that he was being sarcastic about this section.
The publication sparked outrage, but the scandal did help to highlight a relatively new environmental treaty, the 1989. Basel ConventionThe 1998 initiative will focus on the control of hazardous materials and provide the impetus to the subsequent 1998 initiatives. Bamako ConventionThese treaties were created in order to regulate the movement of toxic waste across national borders. Bamako was designed to prohibit imports of waste that can’t be recycled to Africa. This Tunisia deal appears to be in direct violation of that.
All waste from Tunisia is managed in landfills. Borj Chakir, the country’s largest, is located on the outskirts Tunis and takes in approximately 3,000 tonnes of waste per day. This figure is significantly higher than the 44 tonnes allowed in EU landfills. Plastic bags are everywhere, and the waste pollutes nearby water sources.
Attia stated that the Italian deal shows us how our environment is also directly affected by corruption. It is often overlooked because it is so closely tied to other priorities, such as the economy. What would all this waste do for our environment and our land if it were buried in our soils?
This was only the first wave of containers, and there would be many more if we didn’t protest. This scandal highlights the limitations of recycling at both a national as well as international level. Attia stated that it will not be able end the problems of waste management.
“We must change the way we handle domestic waste. We can’t just bury it all in landfills.
