Investigators have uncovered a large-scale illegal operation exporting textile waste from Italy to Turkey. According to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in Brussels, several thousand tonnes of textile waste have been seized. Italian authorities have also confiscated assets worth around €12m.
According to OLAF, the waste consisted of difficult-to-recycle textiles containing a high percentage of acrylic fibres. The shipments are alleged to have been falsely declared as recyclable material in order to avoid the costs of properly recycling the textile waste and complying with applicable environmental regulations.
According to investigators, the shipments to Turkey were linked to a much broader illegal waste operation. Italy's Carabinieri police force allege that the network collected textile waste at "competitive prices" and then reclassified the unsorted collected stock as recovered raw material which had obtained end of waste (EoW) status, before abandoning it at storage sites across northern Italy. More than 26,000 tonnes of textile waste have been found at 15 industrial warehouses, the Carabinieri Forestry Protection Command said. Twenty people are reportedly under investigation.
Working with the Italian Carabinieri and the Turkish authorities, OLAF identified suspicious shipments using trade and customs data. Several consignments were subsequently inspected in Turkey, where around 4,200 tonnes of textile waste were seized, according to the EU agency.
"Schemes such as this one that offer ways to illegally avoid the cost of recycling certain kinds of textile waste or complying with environmental rules are an opportunity for organised networks to make illegal gains. The threat to our economy and our environment is both real and massive," said Petr Klement, director-general of OLAF. "OLAF's work is crucial in tracking down these shipments and working with national authorities in and around Europe to detect and seize the waste and helping to take down these criminal organisations," he added.
