Semia Gharbi, a Tunisian Environmental Activist, has been awarded the 2025 Goldman Prize for challenging corrupt waste trafficking schemes between Italy and Tunisia, resulting in the return of 6,000 tons of illegally exported household waste back to Italy, its country of origin, in February 2022. This momentous award was announced on April 21 in San Francisco during Earth Week.
Between May and July 2020, Italian company Sviluppo Risorse Ambientali, based in Polla, Italy, shipped 282 containers of mixed municipal waste (including household waste) across the Mediterranean to Soreplast, a Tunisian company. Semia and her colleagues at Réseau Tunisie Verte (RTV; Green Tunisia Network), a network of more than 100 environmental organisations, supported the government’s response and persuaded officials to return the 282 containers of illegal, non-recyclable waste to Italy. Learn more about her story here: https://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/semia-gharbi/
Semia is also the founder of the Association for Environmental Education for Future Generations (AEEFG) and is a member of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternative (GAIA) & the Break Free From Plastic (BFFP).
During her ceremony speech, Semia said:
“In Tunisia, like in many other countries, we receive illegal waste from developed countries. As part of our national and global civil society, we refuse to be considered just another country for others to dump their garbage. We must end waste colonialism!”
About the Goldman Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize was established in 1989 by late San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman. Prize winners are selected by an international jury from confidential nominations submitted by a worldwide network of environmental organizations and individuals.
