37,000 tonnes of toxic waste contaminated with PFAS were illegally imported from Italy, Slovenia and Germany to Gospić, Croatia.
74% confidence
EnvironmentCroatia
Omissions
Europol cited a lower figure of about 35,000 tonnes of hazardous and medical waste from Italy, Slovenia and Germany illegally dumped in Croatia (reported by DW and the Guardian), so the exact tonnage is an estimate rather than a fixed figure.
Several Croatian reports (e.g. tportal) state that the waste also came from Austria, a fourth country that the MEP did not mention; the claim's list of origin countries is therefore incomplete but not wrong as far as it goes.
The 37,000-tonne figure is the estimate of the investigated area by Croatian authorities (USKOK); the primary USKOK report itself was not directly retrieved, so the figure rests on Croatian media reporting of it.
The Guardian article (2026-09-25) is dated after the session date (2026-09-17) and could not have been known by the MEP at the time of the speech.
Sources
SecondaryHRT (Croatian Radiotelevision)Na istraženom području procijenjeno je oko 37.000 tona miješanog tehnogenog otpada, među kojim su pronađeni ostaci obrade električne i ... (On the investigated area approximately 37,000 tonnes of mixed technogenic waste were estimated, among which residues from processing electrical ... were found)
SecondarytportalU Gospiću je završilo 37.000 tona otpada dopremljenog iz Italije, Slovenije, Njemačke i Austrije. (37,000 tonnes of waste delivered from Italy, Slovenia, Germany and Austria ended up in Gospić.)
SecondaryLider MediaSlučaj Gospić, gdje je pod zemljom pronađeno procijenjenih 37.000 tona otpada, a nalazi okolišnih vještaka potvrdili PFAS spojeve u podzemnim ... (The Gospić case, where an estimated 37,000 tonnes of waste were found underground, and the findings of environmental experts confirmed PFAS compounds in the groundwater ...)
SecondaryDeutsche Welle (DW)According to Europol, most of the 35,000 tons of waste had come from Italy, but also from Slovenia and Germany, and consisted of plastic ...
SecondaryKlimatski.hrUSKOK je objavio nalaz o ilegalnom odlaganju otpada u Gospiću: pronađeni su PFAS spojevi, mikroplastika i povišene koncentracije metala. (USKOK published the finding on the illegal waste disposal in Gospić: PFAS compounds, microplastics and elevated metal concentrations were found.)