Salerno. The mission in Campania of a delegation of the 'Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into Illicit Activities Connected to the Waste Cycle and Other Environmental and Agri-food Illicit Activities', chaired by MP Jacopo Morrone, continues.
The program is being carried out following two lines of investigation, the first on the international trafficking of waste, the second on the counterfeiting of agri-food and agro-industrial products to protect national companies producing the excellence of 'Made in Italy' put at risk by illicit activities and unfair competition.
On the first strand, three hearings were held in the Prefecture in Salerno and an inspection in Persano, a hamlet of the municipality of Serre in the province of Salerno, where the residues deriving from the combustion of waste stored there are now located after the rejection by the Tunisian authorities of over 200 containers containing them. After returning to Italy, the waste was subject to judicial seizure in February 2022, subsequently, in June 2024, the seizure was released for disposal activities.
The waste was then stored at the Persano site while the tender procedures for disposal were being carried out, which should have started on 31 July 2024, when, suddenly, on 30 July a large fire broke out, affecting an entire area of approximately 7.000 mXNUMX used for storage. “We have had the opportunity to verify,” comments President Morrone, “that there is a stalemate, among other things due to a lack of communication between the bodies responsible and delays that seem unjustified. I hope that the Commission’s inspection can shed light on this ‘case’ that has really been dragging on for too long.
Today, nine months later, the characterization preparatory to disposal has not even been carried out and no one has been able to provide us with the precise date of commencement of work and costs. Clearly the Commission will carry out further hearings and acquire other documentation to give a boost to the situation so that it is resolved definitively”. The 'case' of the Persano waste falls fully within the 'strand' of the Commission's investigation into transnational illicit waste trafficking which sees as rapporteurs for the majority and opposition respectively Senator Simona Petrucci (FdI) and Senator Pietro Lorefice (M5s), both members of the delegation.
In the context of this 'strand', we are examining the types of controls currently exercised in Italian ports and in any case at the Italian borders in order to study corrective measures in order to raise security levels. In this perspective, the delegation visited, in the late afternoon of Monday 31 March, the port of Salerno where, on 25 March this year, a special scanner was put into operation that allows the contents of the container to be checked through different shades of colour without emptying it.
"This is certainly a step forward," explains Morrone, "but it is also true that controls at a national level have a low percentage compared to commercial exchanges, especially outgoing ones. We also witnessed a physical inspection of two containers (one of plastic waste), realizing for ourselves how much time is needed to inspect the entire load."
The delegation included, in addition to the commissioners already mentioned, the deputies Francesco Emilio Borrelli (AVS), Gerolamo Cangiano (FdI) and Maria Stefania Marino (PD-IDP).
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