In this episode we look at the criminal involvement in the plastic waste industry.
The lucrative global market in plastic waste is expected to be reach over $50 billion US Dollars by 2022. From Mafia groups to poly-crime networks, the temptation for organised criminal groups and bad actors to get a slice of this market is too hard to resist - and so corners are cut, laws are ignored, and irreversible damage is done.
Alongside this, some waste management companies are used as Fronts to conceal other illicit activities like human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution, and various financial crimes like money laundering, tax evasion, mis-invoicing.
Paper: Plastic for Profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors
Speakers
Virginia Comolli, Research Manager, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime
Yuyun Ismawati, Special Advisor at the Nexus3 Foundation
Willie Wilson, Vice Chair and Private Sector Engagement Lead, INTERPOL Pollution Crime Working Group
Sedat Gündoğdu, Marine Biologist at Cukurova University in Turkey
Reading
Plastic for Profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC)
Money Laundering from Environmental Crime, Financial Action Task Force (FATF)
INTERPOL report alerts to sharp rise in plastic waste crime, INTERPOL
Plastic Waste Management and Burden in Indonesia, Nexus3 Foundation
Global Shell Game: Fate of re-exports of seized illegal imports of waste from the USA to Indonesia, Nexus3 Foundation
Why is UK recycling being dumped by Turkish roadsides?, BBC News
Biffa fined £1.5 million for 'reckless' export breach, gov.uk
UK waste firm fined £1.5m for exporting household waste, The Guardian
Three victims of trafficking and modern slavery to sue Biffa: The claimants were moved from Poland to the UK and placed in work with waste firm, The Guardian
