Representatives from 30 countries are meeting in Glasgow this week as part of the INTERPOL Pollution Crime Working Group’s (PCWG) three-day conference (6-8 June) to explore new ways of tackling waste crime.

The PCWG is one of three groups leading projects for INTERPOL’s (International Criminal Police Organization) Environmental Compliance and Enforcement Committee, combating the illegal transport, trade and disposal of waste and hazardous substances. It leads a number of projects to combat the trans-boundary movement of waste and issues that cannot be tackled by individual organisations or countries.

The agenda for this year’s meeting includes opportunities for the development of information sharing and intervention initiatives targeting the illegal trans-frontier shipment of hazardous wastes and other pollution crime priorities.

On Wednesday (8 June) PCWG will report to the ECEC Advisory Board, which is currently chaired by Calum MacDonald, Executive Director at the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA).

Prior to the conference, MacDonald claimed that collaboration on international waste crime enforcement is needed, saying: “Environmental crime is a threat to the world’s environment and economy and we are at a crossroads in how we respond to this crisis. It is not something we can tackle as individual organisations or countries.

“Trans-national organised crime groups across the world change their operations quickly to evade our investigative actions, so we have to be equally dynamic and adaptive. That means we need to think differently and explore new tools to stay one step ahead.”

‘Criminals do not respect borders’

Joseph Poux, Deputy-Chief of Environmental Crimes Section, US Department of Justice and Chair of PCWG, added: “Criminals do not respect borders. To the contrary, they use geographic boundaries to conceal their illegal activities and to provide ‘safe havens’ for themselves and assets derived from their crimes.

“In addition, they have access to sophisticated tools and technology that allow them to better conceal their criminal activities. To combat these criminals and establish effective deterrence, all countries must work collaboratively to share information, develop investigative practices, and coordinate enforcement strategies.”

Alongside the conference, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice is today (6 June) chairing a meeting of the Serious Organised Crime Taskforce at the Scottish Crime Campus at Gartcosh. Police Scotland, the Crown Office, local authorities and the third sector are all represented on the taskforce along with SEPA, which is working together to detect environmental crime in Scotland.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson said: “This government is absolutely clear that there is no place for serious organised crime in Scotland and by continuing to work closely with the relevant agencies we are making sure this message hits home.

“Scotland is taking the global stage by welcoming INTERPOL to Glasgow for a week of waste crime action to share experiences in tackling environmental crime and discuss new strategies and techniques that can be used to benefit the environment both at home and abroad.”

Illegal e-waste market in Europe

Previous INTERPOL projects involving waste crime include the Countering WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) Illegal Trade (CWIT) project, launched in 2013 to ‘conduct extensive research into the illegal e-waste market in Europe and provide technical and policy recommendations’.

According to research by the CWIT project, in Europe ‘only 35 per cent (3.3 million tonnes) of all the e-waste discarded in 2012 ended up in the officially reported amounts of collection and recycling systems’.

Of the e-waste that was not reported: 1.5 million tonnes were exported, 3.15 million tonnes were recycled under non-compliant conditions in Europe, 750,000 tonnes were scavenged for valuable parts and the remaining 750,000 tonnes were discarded as general waste.

The CWIT project’s final report addressed actions to combat illegal WEEE trade such as the mandatory treatment of WEEE according to approved standards and a National Environmental Security Task Force (NEST), formed by different authorities and partners, to enable a law enforcement response.

More information is available at SEPA’s website.