A report published Monday by the independent Swiss research group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime sheds light on how recycled waste winds up in poorer countries that had agreed not to accept it.
that only allow the export of so-called clean plastic waste fit for recycling to poorer countries.
Many of the companies alleged to have committed crimes aren’t named in the report, often because they haven’t been formally charged with anything. But one example given of the trends in waste shipping is that of Biffa Waste Services, one of the largest waste companies in Britain.in 2019, the equivalent of more than $470,000 today, for shipping contaminated residential waste to China that it had labeled as paper fit for recycling.
Asian countries are still the top destination for illicit plastic scrap. But the report found that Turkey and some countries in Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Bulgaria, are also seeing in influx. Once the waste reaches its destination, Comolli found that pollution investigators often don’t have the technical knowledge or resources to trace it back to its source or peel back the layers of shell companies to reveal who is trying to bring the waste into their countries. Regulators in some countries have been able to form alliances to share information, but this is still relatively uncommon.