The report notes that since 2018, when China introduced import restrictions on plastic waste, there has been a “considerable increase” in illegal waste shipments from Europe and North America. This has been primarily rerouted to South-East Asia and Eastern Europe, often via multiple transit countries “to camouflage the origin of the waste shipment”, said Interpol.
Based on open sources and criminal intelligence from 40 countries, including the UK, the report provides a “comprehensive global picture of emerging trafficking routes and crime threats in the plastic waste market”, and recommends tailored enforcement responses. The report states that China gave “necessary notice” of its impending ban to the World Trade Organization in July 2017, before the scheme was rolled out in January 2018. However this also “may have opened the door to illegal business opportunities”, according to Interpol, which can occur at any of the “various stages of the value chain of plastic waste processing”.
Since then there has been a continuous re-routing of waste shipments to emerging import countries, primarily located in South and South-East Asia, and to a lesser extent in Eastern Europe. Interpol says that 48% of countries which took part in the report reported an increase in illegal plastic exports since then but this didn’t include the UK which said this remained “unchanged”. The report points to a link between crime networks and legitimate pollution management businesses which are used as a cover for illegal operations, with criminals often resorting to financial crime and document forgery to carry out their global operations
Source: Let’s Recycle
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