The financial police, the customs and monopolies agency, and the regional environmental protection agency of Tuscany in Italy seized 82 tonnes of waste in the port of Marina di Carrara heading to Africa.
The investigations began during a routine check carried out at the entry gates of the port of Marina di Carrara, on a container bound for Tunisia containing textile waste, which aroused suspicion due to its excessive weight, reports the NovaNews website. A preliminary examination revealed that the container did not only contain used clothing, as indicated in the accompanying documents but also other waste. A more in-depth check was therefore carried out, which required the intervention not only of the financiers serving within the Massa Carrara Group but also of colleagues from the Naval Operational Section of Marina di Carrara, as well as staff from the Operational Section territorial of the Customs Agency of Marina di Carrara and the Arpat of the Tuscany region. Upon further investigation, it turned out that this container contained, in addition to urban textile waste, other undeclared waste, namely plastics, leather, and waste from household appliances called RAAE.
The investigations were also extended to three other containers that had common characteristics: same shipping company, same declared contents, and same country of destination. In these containers, there were also, in addition to used clothing, other waste, consisting of old household appliances, shoes, and toys, for the export of which a different procedure was necessary.
The investigation concluded with the criminal seizure of 82.5 tonnes of mixed waste, contained in the fourth container, and with the report of the legal representative of the exporting company from Prato, for the crimes of waste management and trafficking provided for by the consolidated law on environmental issues. The Massa public prosecutor’s office, which validated the seizure, then ordered the recovery of the waste and the lifting of the seizure subject to their regular elimination.
The control activity is the result of an intense collaboration established between the financial police, customs, and Arpat, which, during this year, saw the conclusion of other investigations for the same environmental crimes, with the denunciation of three people and the seizure of mechanical components of trucks, classified as special waste, fraudulently intended for export to the African continent.
In 2020 already, 280 containers…
This is not the first time that containers stuffed with Italian waste have been destined for Tunisia. In 2020, around 280 containers were transported by a Tunisian company that falsely claimed that household waste, the importation of which is prohibited by law, was plastic waste intended for recycling. They came straight from the Campania region (around Naples), in southern Italy: 213 containers were stored in the port of Sousse and the remaining 67 in a warehouse near this coastal city. An agreement was signed on February 11 between Tunisia and Italy to reship 213 containers to their country of origin. The return of the rest of the waste containers, damaged by a fire last December, was the subject of “consultations” between the two parties, according to the Tunisian Ministry of the Environment.
Finally, on February 19, 2022, Tunisia reshipped to Italy 213 containers of household waste illegally imported in 2020 from this country. The day before, these containers stored in the commercial port of Sousse had been gradually loaded onto a Turkish ship chartered by the Italian authorities, putting an end (almost final) to this painful environmental episode, knowing that recurrence in this area has not vocation to be irreversibly written off as evidenced by the recent seizure of 82 tonnes of waste in the port of Marina di Carrara heading to Tunisia.hu
