Garbage is a million-dollar business. The collection, transport and disposal of waste is regulated by European directives, which have been incorporated into Spanish legislation since 2000. The complex regulations mean that obtaining public waste management contracts requires an extensive business and logistics structure, which in turn involves a large investment. According to the Guardia Civil investigators, the elimination of the remains of economic and domestic activities, especially those that are most polluting or harmful (wallites, building materials, electrical appliances, etc.), is a fertile field for villains. Recently, the armed institute confirmed the actions of criminal organizations that transport tons of municipal waste from other parts of Europe to Spain. Large mafia organizations dedicated to fraudulent waste disposal for profit, as is traditionally the case in some areas of Italy, depicted by Roberto Saviano in his book Gomorrah.
One of the keys to this business are the seals or codes that confirm the properties of the waste and allow the waste to easily cross borders. The companies that are able to put some of these codes in place – that report what, whether true or not, is contained in the millions of trucks that travel through Europe every year carrying all kinds of waste – have a lot of power It's barely visible to the society that prefers to live with it – you're back to the mountains of rubbish that it creates. Recent police operations have shown that criminal organizations are taking advantage of inadequate controls – and often the ignorance of inspectors – to smuggle pressed tons of waste into Spain. When researchers dug through this trash, they discovered that most of it came from Italy and southern France.
Global waste trade, regulated by the Basel Convention, is legal and subject to a number of conditions to protect the environment and health. However, when irregularities are committed, the application of seals that do not correspond to the materials transported or the failure to use these materials to eliminate the mandatory treatments (“assessments”) – which, according to researchers, are the main forms of fraud – can become an equally lucrative one how dangerous business can be.
The documentary Unsustainable, rere la brossa (“Unsustainable, after the garbage”, in Catalan), which will be broadcast on TV3 in 2023, gives an insight into what happened. It points out that waste management in Catalonia alone moves 10 billion euros annually and employs 40,000 people. At the same time, it shows the exponential growth of waste imports arriving from Italy through the port of Tarragona. According to their information, 460,000 tons of waste will already be imported from the transalpine country in 2022 (400,000 more than in 2018). And to assess the sector, the latest annual report on waste production and management published by the Ministry of Ecological Transition – which refers to the year 2020 – states that 22 million tonnes of municipal waste were collected in Spain this year. Financial studies show that the treatment of urban waste in Spain reaches business figures of 2,050 million euros. And in the case of the estimated two million tons of “hazardous waste” handled in Spain, 1.5 billion euros were moved in 2022, distributed among 150 companies employing 4,000 workers.
Rinza landfill on the outskirts of Zaragoza, in a picture from Seprona.
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In recent operations, the Guardia Civil's Nature Conservation Service (Seprona) has uncovered that organized crime has specialized in illegal waste trafficking and has turned Spain into Europe's garbage dump. According to sources from the armed institute, the disposal of a ton of municipal waste costs 250 euros in France (50 euros tax included) and 40 euros in Spain, six times less. This means that a truck transporting 20 tons of waste in France would pay 5,000 euros for management; and in Spain there are only 800. If to this large profit margin is added the illegal treatment of waste by some companies that ignore the regulations in order to save significant costs, Spain becomes an ideal landfill where everyone who participates wins.
Operation Poubelle
In Operation Poubelle (Garbage, in French), the last operation developed by UCOMA (Central Operational Unit for the Environment), all roads led to the same landfill, the Industrial Waste Landfill (RINZA) in Zaragoza. Guardia Civil investigators found that urban remains were transported to the site using different routes and an average of 20 trucks per day, mainly from regions in southern France and Italy. “Trucks drove through Irún and La Jonquera, making several stops at various companies in the sector, in Navarre, Catalonia and Aragon,” explains the unit's commander, Carlos Astrain.
The agents lifted and analyzed the successive layers of burials at the landfill and examined the movement of trucks until they determined that remains were being dumped that did not match those the landfill was supposed to receive, even though they were entering with the authorized code. Investigators found that managers used “sham companies” to “hinder the traceability of transported materials.” According to the investigation, the trucks passed through the facilities of these companies, which changed the “seal” of these goods without carrying out the appropriate treatments or simply falsifying the contents of the truck.
The conclusion is that an organization made up of French and Spanish citizens would have made a profit of 16 million euros since 2020 by bringing waste from France and burying it illegally in Zaragoza. As a result of these events, 22 people were arrested in Spain. Two of them are those responsible for the companies Ecovert (Ecology and Discharges Bajo Cinca) and Prewaste. France continues its own judicial investigation.
“Organized crime finds a rich source in fraudulent waste disposal, as the offense has traditionally been an administrative offense, a fine that, no matter how large, costs them dearly,” explains Commander Astrain of UCOMA. “Now we are fighting this phenomenon as organized crime, that is, we are going far beyond environmental crime and accusing those involved of criminal organization, money laundering, document falsification, etc.,” he adds.
UCOMA began observing several simultaneous phenomena a little over a year ago. When analyzing truck movements across the border with Irun, they found that of the vehicles (coincidentally) intercepted, “one in three were transporting illegal waste.” Already in July 2022, they had carried out Operation Dechet, during which they arrested nine people belonging to a criminal group dedicated to smuggling waste from France, which was ultimately illegally dumped in Spain, particularly in Girona, Barcelona and Lleida. Among those involved were well-known members of organized crime in Marseille: “Some of them had multiple previous convictions,” emphasize the investigators.
Environmental groups and concerned neighbors have denounced this trade in waste destined for Spain on several occasions, for example in the Fraga and Monegros region of Aragon or in the case of the Nerva hazardous waste dump in Huelva, located 700 meters from the city. But in theory, sources at the Armed Institute said, the discharges received at this facility in Andalusia “would have had government approval.” In Spain, powers are delegated and it is each autonomous community that must ensure adequate treatment and disposal of waste.
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