The African continent has been used as a landfill. This is the reflection of Semi Labidi Gharbi (Tunisia, Tunisia, 57 years old). “We refuse to be considered another country where others can throw their garbage. We must end this colonialism of waste,” he says during one in April after receiving the Goldman 2025 award, the Nobel environment. The environmental scientist and educator headed, next to the NGO (RTV), a campaign that promoted the return to Italy, in February 2022, of 6,000 tons of household waste that had been illegally exported to Tunisia two years before. His pressure acted as a catalyst, says the Goldman Foundation, so that the European Union hardens the regulations for the export of waste since May 2024, although.
In mid -2020, 282 containers with 7,900 tons of plastic to recycle were sent from the Italian port of Salerno to the port of Susa, located in the northeast of Tunisia. The treatment was simple: these plastics would be separated, transformed and exploited; The rest of the trash would be returned to Italy. Companies, the Italian Sviluppo Risorse Environmenti (MRS) – specialized in garbage recovery and management – and the soreplast suarl tunecine – given to recycling – said it was post -industrial plastic.
However, once the containers arrived in Tunisia, suspicions began. The customs authorities opened the deposits and found land, pieces of wood, cloth, socks, shoes, aluminum cans and toys; Only 55% was plastic, according to a Tunisian medium Inkyafe e IrpiMedia from Italy. The news soon became public. A day after Gharbi found out the situation, he mobilized. “Each of the RTV members took over the case in their specialty,” says WhatsApp this newspaper. Thus, at the end of 2020, they had already promoted a national campaign to “mobilize the rest of the population to action” and a parliamentary commission of Tunisia began the investigation, which resulted in the arrest of the then Minister of the Environment, Mustapha Laroui, and at least 25 ministry officials.
Different national and international civil society organizations, together with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on toxic substances and human rights, Marcos Orellana, elaborated in which they detailed the network of corruption and how the real destination of Italian waste was their undercover elimination. Soreplast would destroy the garbage in exchange for 48 euros per ton. And Msa would avoid paying higher rates of elimination in your country. They even had the authorization of the National Waste Management Agency to bury the waste in a landfill in the Tunisian port, according to said report.
The negotiation that both companies agreed was illegal by ignoring the Tunisian legislation, the European and several international agreements such as Basel, which prohibits the trade of hazardous materials, except if the receiving country gives its consent and proof that has the conditions for its treatment. However, for Gharbi, Tunisia does not have them. “Mixed municipal waste cannot be exported. Especially since we have problems to manage ours. At the same time, developed countries have the capacity to rationally manage their waste and have advanced technology to control them,” he argues.
European legislation also prohibits the export of waste from the European Union for final elimination and export to non -members of the OECD. Even African countries prohibit importation. “The Bamako agreement is a framework to protect Africa from waste export, since the continent has been treated as a landfill,” explains Gharbi.
While the Basel Convention is in force, much work is left to do, for the good of all
For the defender, acting was not a matter of motivation, but of duty. “This type of scandals has affected several countries and although international legislation is applied, years can pass until waste was repathered and in many cases remain in the host country,” he adds.
Environmental crime
Tunisia is not an isolated case. According to data from, between 2016 and 2020, 272,000 tons of illegal shipments of waste worldwide were reported. The equivalent of the weight of approximately 1,800 blue whales (the largest animal, which on average weighs between 100 and 150 tons). In this report, published in 2023, the OECD warns that environmental crime is increasing by 8% on average each year and attributes it to “regulatory failures.”
After a year of insistence, Tunisia and Italy signed an agreement for the return of 212 containers with 6,000 tons of waste, which is the amount that remained after a fire of the containers in December 2021. In February 2022 the garbage was sent back. “For us, as a civil society, the objective of repatriation has been achieved […] It is an issue that has remained in people’s minds, ”he acknowledges.
In April 2024, the European Commission approved a new on the transfer of waste (RTR) with significant reforms to prevent illegal trade. In the document, the authorities recognize the problem: “Illicit waste transfers inside and from the EU remain a considerable problem due to the general nature of the RTR provisions.” Although it does not cite figures from illegal trade, it ensures that the EU exported to non -community countries around 32.7 million tons of waste in 2020. “As regards Europe, we welcome with satisfaction the amendment that has been applied, but while the Basel Convention is in force, much work remains for the good of all,” says Gharbi.
For the scientist, the prize is not the most important, but the results of the actions they undertook. “The African continent is full of women environmental activists who, with the media at their disposal, protect their surroundings for the good of their family and their community. It is an honor to be part of this platform. It is a shared global objective: protect human, animal and plant health,” he concludes.
