Waste management is a lucrative and fast‑developing industry, which increasingly attracts criminals

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME Waste and pollution crime Illicit waste trafficking entails the ‘illegal transportation, processing, disposal, recycling or recovery of various waste materials’. Trafficked waste materials include both non-hazardous and hazardous waste, including chemical waste, construction waste, urban solid waste, industrial waste, oils and oil blending, plastic waste, waste of electronic and electric equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles and car parts (especially tyres and batteries), scrap metals, liquid manure, and black mass (powder derived from alkaline batteries). End-of-life maritime vessels are trafficked from the EU to Asia for demolition. Waste management is a lucrative and fast‑developing industry, which increasingly attracts criminals. The majority of the reported waste trafficking cases involved individuals working in or operating waste management companies as managers or staff, who violate national and international legislation and standards regulating the collection, treatment and disposal of waste to maximise profits. The most successful waste traffickers are those who control the entire processing cycle, from source to destination countries. Criminals trafficking waste between different countries primarily use legal business structures to orchestrate waste crimes. Often multiple companies are owned by the same individuals or by strawpersons. The legal business structures frequently change leadership and are often terminated after a short period of activity, as a new trading entity takes over the business. Companies operating different stages in the waste cycle are often located in different jurisdictions. Waste trafficking is strongly linked to other offences such as document fraud, economic fraud, tax evasion, corruption, money laundering, as well as theft and the dumping of waste from illegal drug production.