Plastic waste crime is a business model
The Netherlands plays a major role in the global trade of plastic waste. Criminal acts occur at every step in the plastic waste trade chain. This is evident from a special contribution from the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate's Intelligence and Investigation Service (ILT-IOD) to the Environmental Crime Threat Assessment 2024. The report, published in November last year, was commissioned by the Strategische Milieukamer (Strategic Environmental Chamber).
Lees deze pagina in het Nederlands
In the Environmental Crime Threat Assessment, the ILT-IOD describes the practices in plastic waste that have been reported in the past 5 years by environmental supervisors, signals from the Criminal Intelligence Team, public sources and criminal investigations. The ILT-IOD concludes that financial gain leads to criminal acts. By sharing this knowledge, the ILT-IOD hopes to provide insight into what plastic waste crime can look like, so we can jointly tackle this problem more effectively.
Plastic waste crime
Many Western countries, including the Netherlands, export waste to other parts of the world. They do this partly because of the relatively low costs of processing elsewhere. These exports are not always desired in the country of destination and are sometimes illegal. In addition, incorrect processing leads to pollution of the living environment and the release of substances of very high concern.
There are indications of criminal activities in the trade and export of low-value plastic waste flows. By falsifying codes or documents, hiding waste behind another cargo or diverting waste transports through multiple links or countries, plastic waste is transported illegally and hidden from the view of supervisory authorities.
Risk of traders
The main incentive for plastic waste crime is the financial model of processors and traders. They receive the money from the disposer of poorly recyclable waste at the same time as the waste. With each additional costly processing step, profits decrease, creating an incentive to process or get rid of the waste as cheaply as possible.
Traders and middlemen play a special role in this, they facilitate the market by taking over the most problematic (contaminated) plastic waste flows. Some of the small traders do not have their own storage capacity or processing location, but do trade in waste without ever physically having access to the material. These traders are difficult to monitor and therefore often have free rein. This hampers supervision. It is tempting for businesses to use these traders, because they can get rid of plastic waste cheaply.
Challenges
There is insufficient insight into small traders and the complex interdependence of parties in the waste sector. Due to the enormous volumes and numbers of transport movements that take place from and via the Netherlands, it is a challenge to expose illegal activities involving plastic waste.
To better tackle the complex world of plastic waste crime, national and international collaboration and investments in detection are needed. Important pillars are a better insight into the plastic waste chain, the financial indicators of possible criminal practices and high-risk waste flows, clear coordination of international supervision and the sharing of information.
Inspections of plastic waste
Last year, the ILT found that high-quality plastics are being shipped to countries outside the European Union (in Dutch). In 2022, Customs carried out almost 4,800 waste inspections on behalf of the ILT. Of this, 13% consisted of plastic waste. These inspections show that a lot of plastic waste is exported from the Netherlands and that producers, businesses that offer packaged products and waste processors allow these raw materials to end up as waste.