'No dumping ground': Tunisia activist wins award over waste scandal
Gharbi was among the first to speak out when Italy shipped more than 280 containers of waste to the North African country in 2020.
The cargo was initially labelled as recyclable plastic scrap, but customs officials found hazardous household waste -- banned under Tunisian law.
"It's true, we are developing countries," Gharbi said in an interview with AFP. "But we are not a dumping ground."
The 57-year-old was among seven environmentalists from different countries handed this year's Goldman Environmental Prize -- commonly known as the "Green Nobel" -- in California last week.
The Goldman committee said her grassroots activism helped force Italy to take the waste back in February 2022.
Gharbi "helped spearhead a campaign that challenged a corrupt waste trafficking scheme between Italy and Tunisia," the Goldman committee said.
And her endeavours ultimately led to the return of 6,000 tonnes of "illegally exported household waste back to Italy", the US-based organisation added.
The scandal took on national proportions in Tunisia and saw the sacking of then environment minister Mustapha Aroui, who was sentenced to three years in prison.
A total of 26 people, including customs officials, were prosecuted.
Yet the waste remained at the port of Sousse for more than two years, with Tunisian rights groups criticising the authorities' inaction as Italy failed to meet deadlines to take it back.
- Limited capacity -
Global waste trade often sees industrialised nations offload rubbish in poorer countries with limited means to handle it.
"What is toxic for developed countries is toxic for us too," said Gharbi. "We also have the right to live in a healthy environment."
She added that while richer countries can manage their own waste, developing ones like Tunisia have "limited capacity".
The Goldman committee said Gharbi's campaigning helped drive reforms in the European Union.
"Her efforts spurred policy shifts within the EU, which has now tightened its procedures and regulations for waste shipments abroad," it said.
Gharbi, who has spent 25 years campaigning on environmental threats to health, said she never set out to turn the scandal into a symbol.
"But now that it has become one, so much the better," she said with a smile.
She hopes the award will raise the profile of Tunisian civil society, and said groups she works with across Africa see the recognition as their own.
"The prize is theirs too," she said, adding it would help amplify advocacy and "convey messages".
iba/dv
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump: 50-50 chance of reaching trade deal with EU
President Donald Trump appeared cautiously optimistic on Friday about the chances of reaching a trade deal with the European Union before his self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline. 'I would say that we have a 50-50 chance, maybe less than that, but a 50-50 chance of making a deal with the EU,' Trump told reporters at the White House before heading to Scotland on a private visit and to meet with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The U.S. and EU have been locked in intense negotiations in recent weeks as the deadline looms for Trump to impose a 30 percent tariff on all imports from the 27-country bloc which totaled $605 billion last year. The president on Friday said any deal with the EU countries will have to be one where they 'buy down their tariffs, because they're right now at 30 percent.' In essence, that depends on how willing the bloc is to lower its barriers to American exports, Trump said. Last year, the United States exported about $370 billion worth of goods to the EU. A large portion of those, along with some U.S. services exports, could be hit with EU retaliation if there is no agreement. Still, Trump told reporters he was more optimistic about reaching a deal with the EU than he was about reaching a deal with Japan in the days before Washington and Tokyo reached an agreement last week. 'I would have said we have a 25 percent chance with Japan. And they kept coming back, and we made a deal,' he said. UK 'fine tuning': Trump is spending the weekend in Scotland at his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf resorts, where he will host Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney. Trump told reporters that he and Starmer 'want to talk about certain aspects" of the trade agreement his administration reached with Starmer's government in May. "More fine tuning. And also we're going to do a little celebrating together," the president said. In response to a question, Trump said he did not have much wiggle room to provide more generous terms on his steel and aluminum tariffs for the United Kingom in exchange for London addressing U.S. concerns about its digital services tax. 'Not a lot, because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all. So on that, steel and aluminum — not a lot,' Trump said. As part of the framework agreement inked in May, the U.K. was conditionally promised a quota to export steel to the U.S. at the low 'most-favored nation' rate. However, that provision has not yet been finalized after some in U.S. industry expressed concern.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Bloomberg
EU-US Trade Agreement Now Hinges Mostly on Trump's Verdict
After months of intensive talks and shuttle diplomacy, a trade agreement between the European Union and the US now rests mostly on Donald Trump. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will travel to Scotland to meet the US president on Sunday, as the two sides aim to conclude a deal ahead of Friday's deadline, at which point 30% tariffs on the bloc's exports to the US are otherwise due to kick in.
CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
EU chief to meet Trump in Scotland in push to avoid a transatlantic trade war
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Scotland over the weekend, seeking to reach a framework trade agreement shortly before a 30% tariff on EU imports comes into effect. In a post on social media platform X on Friday, the EU's von der Leyen said she had agreed to meet with the U.S. president on Sunday "to discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong." Trump later confirmed the meeting would take place as he arrived in Scotland on Friday evening, saying "we'll see if we can make a deal." "I think we have a good 50/50 chance. That's a lot," he added. It comes amid a sense of growing optimism about the prospect of a tariff breakthrough, with sources telling CNBC that the current base-case scenario for a deal includes a 15% tariff on EU imports to the U.S. Trump has threatened to impose tariffs of 30% on EU goods from Aug.1, prompting the EU to consider countermeasures as part of its response. The U.S. and EU have the largest bilateral trade and investment relationship in the world, representing almost 30% of global trade in goods and services, and accounting for 43% of global gross domestic product (GDP), according to EU figures. Trump's four-day and golf-heavy Scotland visit is also expected to see him hold an informal meeting with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Unlike the EU, the U.K. recently struck a trade deal with the Trump administration, one which is centered on a 10% tariff baseline on British goods arriving in the U.S. Hopes of the U.S. and EU averting a transatlantic trade war from Aug. 1 have been buoyed at least in part by the recent announcement of a framework agreement between the U.S. and Japan. The U.S.-Japan deal, which Trump described in a social media post as "perhaps the largest Deal ever made," includes a baseline tariff rate of 15%. Jack Allen-Reynolds, deputy chief euro zone economist at Capital Economics, said Friday that a similar framework for the EU might be seen as case where a bad deal is better than no deal. "Reports this week suggest that the EU and US are on the brink of agreeing a trade deal with a 15% baseline tariff on US imports from the bloc. It's hard to spin it as a good deal, but it would at least avoid much higher US tariffs and retaliation from the EU," Allen-Reynolds said in a research note.
