How do they manage to dispose of this toxic waste, when these materials are duly classified by the European Waste Catalogue? The mechanism is simple, it’s called giro di bolla, and it is the mechanism whereby truckloads of toxic waste, which would otherwise have a high cost of disposal, are magically transformed into innocuous garbage that can be sent to a landfill without any problem. Each load of waste is accompanied by a bill of parcel, bolla, which indicates the hazardous degree of the substance. Companies that want to save money turn to an intermediary who transports the toxic waste to a warehousing centre. There the bill of parcel is easily modified with the stroke of a pen. Alternatively the toxic waste is often mixed with ordinary waste, so as to dilute the toxic concentration and lower the hazard level in the document as well.

One of the most incredible outcomes is that organizations sometimes not only manage to hide the toxic waste, but actually turn it into fertilizer that can be sold! And so the clans even go so far as to make money from selling poisons, as shown by Operation Fly, one of numerous investigations into the illegal trafficking of waste along the north–south corridor. I’ve tried to list several of them here:

– Cassiopeia (2003): Every week, from North to South, 40 semis loaded with waste-dumped cadmium, zinc, lead paint discards, sludge from wastewater purification plants, assorted plastics, arsenic, steelworks scraps and lead.

– Mother Earth (2006): Coordinated by the Santa Maria Capua Vetere’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. Printer toner from offices in Tuscany and Lombardy were dumped at night between Villa Literno, Castelvolturno and San Tammaro by trucks officially carrying compost. The lands were saturated with hexavalent chromium, a chemical element that, when inhaled, lodges in the red blood cells and in the hair, causing ulcers, respiratory and kidney problems, and lung cancer.

– Fly (2004): In Umbria and Molise 120 tons of special waste from metallurgical industries and hospitals in northern Italy were illegally dumped. Four acres of land near the coast of Molise were cultivated with fertilizer derived from this waste. The grain produced contained a very high concentration of chromium.

– King Midas (2003): An investigation by Naples’ public prosecutor into over 40,000 tons of waste from central and northern Italy dumped into abandoned quarries and farmlands in the province of Naples.

– Adelphi (1993): In one of the earliest operations, the Naples Anti-Mafia Directorate investigated the transport of toxic waste from Veneto, Lombardy and Piedmont to Campania, in Pianura.

– Greenland (2002): The prosecutor of Spoleto investigated the discovery of toxic waste in six farms in Umbria, Lazio, Tuscany and Puglia.

– Murgia Violata (2002): The Prosecutor’s Office in Bari investigated the transport of toxic waste from Tuscany, Lazio, Lombardy, Veneto and Liguria, dumped in the farmlands of the Province of Bari.

– Econox (2002): The Cosenza Prosecutor’s Office investigated the transport of toxic waste from Calabria, Lazio and Campania to Cosenza.