Illegal waste exports are known as waste trafficking. They adversely affect sustainable resource
management, recycling effectiveness, the environment and human health. In addition, exporting
waste for unhealthy and unacceptable therapy overseas rather than complying with laws
generates an uneven playing field that impairs sound market processes.
As a result, illicit waste trafficking is a secretive but highly lucrative sector that severely affects human health and the natural environment. Unsuccessful waste handling adversely affects the reputation and
credibility of the waste management sector, leading to environmental crime
Illegal logging, mining, and trash disposal are only some examples of the many environmental
crimes that exist today. These criminals range in scale from enormous organized crime
syndicates to individuals and even international corporations. Environmental crime perpetrators
rely on financial and non-financial sectors to launder their proceeds.
Waste management is essential, but individuals and businesses often neglect it because waste has
no positive value. It is expensive for companies to dispose of garbage correctly, and trash that is
not dealt with affects the environment. The costs consider everything from labour and materials
to treatment and technology that must adhere to local, state, and federal environmental rules.
There is, therefore, an incentive for companies wishing to avoid these costs to export the waste to
countries with less strict environmental standards or illegally dump and dispose of such waste.
Many such companies are in developed countries and include licensed waste management firms.
Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and West Africa are common destinations subject to waste
dumping.
As such, the implementation of waste trafficking is organizationally complicated and suffers
from the absence of adequate information and the difficulty in determining whether a waste
shipment is to be defined as illegal. Still, it is essential to discover methods to deal effectively
with waste trafficking.
More information must be gathered to paint a complete picture of illegal international waste
flows. Seizures need to be reported to national enforcement databases so that countries can better
understand trafficking patterns and improve waste management. With this information, Customs
and law enforcement actions can be more precisely targeted, and qualitative intelligence can be
gained. As there are several parties who are responsible for helping curb waste trafficking
worldwide, it is integral that this multifaceted problem be dealt with integrated border security
solutions that address both the issue of illegal waste trafficking as well as effective waste
management on a global level.
Effective integrated border security solutions for waste trafficking require cooperation and
coordination between multiple agencies, including customs and border protection, environmental
enforcement agencies, and intelligence and law enforcement agencies. In addition, partnerships
with foreign governments and international organizations can also play a crucial role in
preventing the illegal trade in waste. It goes without saying that technology can also be used to
enhance border security for waste trafficking. Additionally, the use of databases and information-
sharing systems can help to track and identify potential waste traffickers.
Software like Advanced Crime Analytics and Accurint Crime Analysis help enable data sharing,
mapping, and reporting for law enforcement agencies. A user can get call and criminal data from
local and international authorities and use it for research and data mining. The Advanced Crime
Analytics server performs automatic extraction and cleaning of data put into it from various
sources to raise data quality benchmarks and foster cross-agency cooperation.
Dashboard analytics, mapping, and reports are also provided to law enforcement to aid analysts investigators, and decision-makers in pursuing data-driven judgments to support initiatives. By further developing and applying this observation capacity, information about waste disposal and monitoring can safely be gathered time and cost-effectively. Moreover, it can also help detect illegal waste dumping or identify potential unlawful waste sites. Overall, tech- savvy firms such as the Wynyard Group & Accurint can contribute massively to the development of innovative technologies and funding efforts to tackle serious waste crime.
Therefore, efficient integrated border security preventive measures must be based on
international collaboration, intelligence, and cross-organizational and cross-functional
collaboration to tackle a problem as global as waste trafficking. Finally, it is essential to identify
once and for all that criminals and criminal organizations are willing to benefit from this
complex problem and the absence of information and attention of law enforcement agencies
worldwide.
The environmental impact of this problem is ever-growing, vast and global and the
measures must address the entire value chain. Particular attention should be paid to ecological
law implementation and enforcement: how diligently it is implemented, how intelligently it is
enforced where necessary and how it can be further developed to address all disparities
effectively.
