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Waste Crime
Reasons for waste crime
Illegal or illicit waste management can occur due to the high
costs of waste management (particularly hazardous waste), weak
governance, loopholes in regulations or a lack of awareness. It
presents significant opportunities for illegal actors to operate
in a market with relatively few risks – as there are limited
controls or weak enforcement mechanisms. Waste crimes can
happen within a country or involve trade between countries.
While illegal or informal household waste dumping practices
are widespread, countries with weak governments and poor
enforcement mechanisms are more vulnerable to unsound
waste management practices.
Illegal dumping
Cases of illegal or informal dumping, driven by tax avoidance
or weak governance (including the failure to apply
environmental regulations) occur within countries. Financial
mechanisms such as landfill taxes or waste management
fees exist to provide sound and reliable waste management
services. However, unscrupulous actors seek to avoid these
fees by illegally dumping waste elsewhere. Companies who
provide waste disposal services may also generate ‘easy’
revenue by dumping waste illegally, rather than paying fees
to dispose of waste in formal landfills. Dumping is committed
by both individuals and companies. Illegal dumping can be
part of a broader chain of legal waste management activities,
making it difficult to identify and distinguish those involved
(Rucesvka et al., 2015).
Examples exist across different countries. The illegal dumping
of toxic and industrial waste was reported in the Ibaraki
mountains northeast of Tokyo, Japan in 2014. The waste
Waste crime involves the illegal handling of waste, which can lead to environmental, social and
economic challenges for countries – ranging froma simplenuisance, through to serious environmental
contamination and threats to public health. At the global level, there is very little information on
the extent of waste crime in mountainous regions. However, the remoteness of many mountain
regions is likely to make them easy targets for criminals, much like dumping on the high seas. The
illegal or informal dumping of solid waste in mountain regions involves all types of waste including
household, industrial and construction waste. Industrial activities such as mining in mountain areas,
are of particular concern, especially where operations fail to apply environmental regulations for the
management of waste. In many cases, these operations generate hazardous waste, which carry risks
for the environment and human health.
included debris from the earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and
toxins such as lead and chromium. The toxins, in particular,
affected the area’s soil and water bodies (The Japan Times, 2014).
In 2015, illegal dumping of household and industrial waste was
reported in the Blue Mountains in Australia. The clean-up activity
organized by the authorities recovered 8 tons of waste including large
amounts of dumped asbestos (Blue Mountains City Council, 2015).
Unauthorized dumping of industrial and construction waste was
reported in the Northern Caucasus; construction companies used
rudimentary waste disposal methods in preparation for the 2014
Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia (Sobol, 2015). As a result, dozens
of illegal landfills were reported throughout the Krasnodar Region
where Olympic construction companies covertly disposed of their
waste (Digges, 2013). The role of law enforcement agencies and
federal authorities are crucial in sound waste management practices;
weak surveillance often leads to illegal activities (Sobol, 2015).
Several European countries have been in breach of European Union
landfill legislation, posing serious risks to ecosystems and human
health. The Campania region in southwest Italy has been referred by
the EuropeanCommission to the EuropeanCourt of Justice for its long-
running failure to manage waste adequately (European Commission,
2014). Illegal landfills are also associated with other illegal activities
such as landfill fires. Campania, has been nick-named the ‘Land of
Fires’ because, since the 1980s, organized criminal groups have been
burning and burying toxic waste (D’Alisa et al., 2015).
Due to disparities in economic development or differences in costs
between regions, there is a tendency for waste to be traded between
industrial and developing countries, including illegal shipments.
At the global level, however, there is very little information on the
extent to which mountain regions are the targets of such activity.