With more stringent recycling and waste disposal laws now in place, European companies are finding it difficult to foot the additional costs of disposing of garbage responsibly. To avoid the expense of recycling the items or the associated taxes with destroying them, they are increasingly re-exporting the items to poor, developing countries in Asia and Africa.
While much of the international waste trade is legal, sent to qualified overseas recyclers, a big chunk is not. For a price, underground traders make Europe’s waste disappear overseas.
Since 1995, paper, plastic and metal trash exported from Europe rose tenfold. Some of these exports are legal - often times recycling companies buy up waste to be cheaply recycled in Africa or China.
Half of these exports pass through Rotterdam port, where port inspectors are working diligently to combat illegal exports of waste products.
The Dutch have taken a lonely lead in inspecting waste exports and curbing the traffic, providing a rare window into the trade. They estimate that 16 percent of the exports are illegal. But in most ports where customs inspectors typically check imports far more thoroughly than exports, much probably passes through unnoticed.
The problem in the US is going virtually unnoticed - partly due to the fact that recycling requirements are not as strict, so there is less need to export waste, and partly due to the fact that the US places less export restrictions on waste products.
In the United States, more states are passing laws that require the recycling of goods, especially electronics. But because the United States places fewer restrictions on trash exports and monitors them far less than Europe, that increasing volume is flowing relatively freely overseas, mostly legally, experts say. Up to 100 containers of waste from the United States and Canada arrive each day, according to environmental groups and local authorities in Hong Kong.
Another problem Rotterdam port faces is that more imports are scanned than exports - in most ports around the world. Outgoing shipments are seen as less of a hazard than incoming. So, although they try to stop them before they leave, containers oftentimes leave undetected from other EU ports.
Exporters must be careful in complying with all export regulations, especially as the EU enacts more "green" laws to protect the environment. Taking the easy way out, as this article mentions, can cost up to $22,000 per infraction or, in the case of repeat offenders, criminal prosecution.
Additionally, the article highlights how exporters must know their trading partners. Handing your waste off to a company that promises to export it at a cheap rate can also get you into legal trouble, as these repeat offenders can also be denied parties.
To read the entirety of this great feature, visit: "Smuggling Europe's Waste to Poorer Countries" at the New York Times.
