Italy accused of giving organised crime a ‘stranglehold’ on waste

Date: 20/03/03

By Karen Carstens

ENVIRONMENTAL campaigners have accused the Italian government of introducing laws that encourage "a stranglehold of organised crime on the Italian waste sector".

The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and its Italian member Legambiente claimed in a statement that recent laws had failed to meet the requirements of EU waste legislation.

According to a new EEB report, more than 11 million tonnes of waste 'disappeared' in 2001. The environmentalists allege that the waste is being off-loaded to poor countries by criminal gangs, who collect an estimated €2.6 billion in return.

Since January 2002, the European Commission has launched investigations into 125 cases of EU environmental policy breaches by Italy, some half of which concern waste.

The Italian government adopted a law narrowing its legal definition of waste in July 2002. The upshot was a watering down of both existing EU and international definitions of hazardous waste as 'secondary materials'. This, says EEB, has enabled dubious operators to ferry 'dirty' shipments of waste, such as scrap metal originating in countries that do abide by EU guidelines, to hapless third countries.

"By declassifying this waste, Italy is promoting the export of hazardous waste to poorer countries," the campaigners say. Moreover, Italian parliamentarians are currently discussing legislation that would allow companies willing to trade such materials to register in Italy to conduct their business on a global scale.

"Italy could be the first industrialised country that is offering a convenient base for environmental criminals," said John Hontolez, EEB secretary-general.

Environmental campaigners have accused the Italian government of introducing laws that encourage 'a stranglehold of organised crime on the Italian waste sector'.

http://www.eeb.org/activities/waste/ITALY-waste-report-March2003.pdf http://www.eeb.org/activities/waste/ITALY-waste-report-March2003.pdf

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