Huge piles of textile waste were illegally shipped from Italy to Turkey to avoid expensive recycling requirements, according to the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
Around 4,200 tonnes of textile waste were found, according to OLAF, which investigates fraud against the EU budget. It called this “a case of large-scale trafficking of textile waste.”
OLAF said these textiles contain a high percentage of acrylic fibers, which require specific and expensive recycling technology since they are non-biodegradable materials that can last in the environment for as long as 200 years.
To spot this, OLAF said it collaborated with Italy’s law enforcement to study the availability of this recycling technology. OLAF then analyzed trade flows and customs data to identify several shipments that were mislabeled to avoid the more expensive recycling requirements. OLAF worked with Turkish custom authorities to inspect the shipments upon arrival.
“The threat to our economy and our environment is both real and massive,” said Petr Klement, director-general at OLAF. “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 organized networks to make illegal gains.”
“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 organizations,” he added, without identifying who was or were behind the shipments.
Meanwhile, OLAF said it also took part in an on-the-spot inspection organized by Turkish and Italian authorities. They discovered nearly 2,100 tonnes of textiles stocked in a warehouse owned by a Turkish recycling facility, which OLAF said was not managed in accordance with applicable environmental and permit regulations.
OLAF intelligence also spotted another 768 tonnes of textile waste originating from Italy and connected it to a fraudulent scheme in the Turkish port of Mersin, which were also incorrectly labelled and ready to be illegally dumped. All these shipments were seized by the Turkish authorities.
OLAF’s work has recently led to a raid by Italian law enforcement in Brescia this week, targeting a business complex owned by a company linked to the illegal exports. The raid seized around 12 million euros ($13.6 million) in financial assets, including its operating facilities and a fleet of trucks illegally used for transport.
OLAF noted the importance of the textile and clothing sector in EU, which had a turnover of 170 billion euros ($193.1 billion) in 2023 and employ more than a million people. Textile waste, however, is “notoriously slow” and expensive to recycle, OLAF said. For example, out of around 12.6 million tons of waste generated in 2019, just one-fifth was separately collected for reuse or recycling.
This comes months after the European Commission introduced new rules on textile waste in October last year, which make a clear distinction between used textiles and textile waste. All separately collected textiles are now considered as waste, and each EU country must ensure that separately collected textiles undergo sorting operations before their possible shipment, to prevent waste from being falsely labelled and exported as reusable.
