Author: Guia Baggi, Laura Carrer, Rahma Behi, Virginia Kirst
In 2020, 282 containers full of mixed waste bales sailed from Salerno, Italy, to Sousse, Tunisia, in four shipments. Italian customs did not raise any flags. Customs classified them as CA, or automated control (controllo automatizzato in the local language), simply meaning no control. Back then, the COVID-19 pandemic was kicking, and officials relaxed scrutiny of goods between countries. But even outside global emergencies, only a tiny portion of outbound containers undergo some control. In Italy, it’s roughly 2%.