By Louise Smith

Fly-tipping is the illegal disposal of household, industrial, commercial or other 'controlled' waste. The waste can be liquid or solid. ‘Controlled’ waste includes garden refuse and larger domestic items such as fridges and mattresses. Fly-tipping is not the same as littering. Littering is commonly assumed to include materials, often associated with smoking, eating and drinking. More information on litter can be found in the Commons Library briefing on litter. Fly-tipping is a devolved issue and this briefing focuses on England. Further information can also be provided to MPs and their staff on request.

The scale of fly-tipping

Government Fly-tipping statistics for England, April 2023 to March 2024 show that:

For the 2023/24 year, local authoritiesin England dealt with 15 million fly-tipping incidents, an increase of 6% from the 1.08 million reported in 2022/23.

In 2023/24,60% of fly-tips involved household waste. Total incidents involving household waste were 688,000 in 2023/24, an increase of 5% from 654,000 incidents in 2022/23.

Responsibility for fly tipping and powers to require clearance

Local authorities are responsible for investigating, clearing and taking appropriate enforcement action in relation to small scale fly-tipping on public land.

In England the Environment Agency is responsible for dealing with larger-scale fly-tipping (more than a lorry load), hazardous waste and fly-tipping by organised gangs.

On private land, it is normally the responsibility of the landowner to remove the waste.

Local authorities and the Environment Agency have legal powers to require landowners to clear fly-tipped waste from their land. They also have powers to enter the land and clear it and may seek reimbursement for costs related to it.

Penalties for fly-tipping

There is currently no minimum fine set out in law for unlawfully depositing waste under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts. Other available penalties include the issue of a fixed penalty notices and having a vehicle seized. Householders can receive a fixed penalty notice of up to £600 if they pass their waste to an unlicensed waste carrier which is subsequently fly-tipped.

Concern about costs to private landowners

Concern has been raised about the costs involved to private landowners of clearing fly tipped waste from their land and several campaigns have been launched calling for change in this area.

UK Government plans for reform

Through the Crime and Policing Bill 2024-25 the government is seeking powers to issue statutory guidance on fly-tipping enforcement to local authorities. Local authorities would be required to have regard to the guidance.

The government has announced plans to introduce mandatory digital waste tracking from April 2026. A digital waste tracking system would require those who produce, handle, dispose of, or make products from, waste to enter information onto it. Among other things it aims to enable regulators to better detect illegal activity and tackle waste crime, including fly-tipping.

There are plans for the Environment Agency to introduce a waste crime levy on specified legitimate waste operations, to better fund regulatory work targeting waste crime.

The UK Government has also indicated that it will make changes to the waste carrier, broker and dealer registration system, to make it easier to identify rogue operators in the waste sector.

Research Briefing

London: House of Commons Library 2025. 33p.

By Dan Werb, dwerb@health.u HaeSeung Sung ∙ Yingbo Naa ∙ Indhu Rammohana ∙ Jolene Eeuwesa ∙ Ashly Smoke∙  Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, Thomas Kerr,g, and Mohammad Karamouzian

  Background Supervised consumption services (SCS) are effective at preventing overdose mortality. However, their effect on public safety remains contested. We investigated homicide rates in areas near SCS in Toronto. Methods We classified coroner-reported fatal shootings and stabbings (January 1st, 2010 to September 30th 2023) by geographic zone: within 500 m (‘near’), between 500 m and 3 km (‘far’), and beyond 3 km of an SCS (‘out’). We then used Poisson regression to calculate the rate ratio (RR) across zones 18, 36, 48, and 60 months pre vs. post SCS implementation. Finally, we compared spatial homicide incidence prior to and after the date of the implementation of each SCS using interrupted time series (ITS). Findings Overall, 956 homicides occurred, and 590 (62%) were fatal shootings and stabbings. There was no meaningful change in the rate of fatal shootings and stabbings within 3 kms of SCS (near and far zones) after their implementation. However, between 48 and 60 months pos-implementation, we detected an increase in out zones. In an ITS analysis, we observed a reduction in the monthly incidence in near zones and an increase in out zones. Interpretation SCS implementation was not associated with increased homicide rates; instead, we observed a reduction in monthly incidence near SCS. These results may inform drug market activity responses that optimize community health and safety.

The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, Volume 43, 2025. 101022

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The third edition of the World Wildlife Crime Report probes recent trends in the illicit trafficking of protected species of wild fauna and flora and provides a broad assessment of current knowledge about the causes and implications of associated crime at a global level. As was the case for the first two editions published in 2016 and 2020, research carried out for this report included quantitative assessment of global wildlife trafficking and a series of in-depth case studies. An additional emphasis for this edition is on systematic analysis of wildlife crime harms and impacts, factors driving crime trends and the evidence for what remedial interventions work best.

The report concludes that wildlife trafficking persists worldwide despite two decades of concerted action at international and national levels. There are signs of progress in reducing the impacts of trafficking for some iconic species, elephants and rhinoceros, for which a combination of efforts from both the demand and supply side have yielded positive outcomes. However, UNODC’s assessment of available evidence gives no confidence that wildlife trafficking overall is being substantially reduced.

The global scope and scale of wildlife crime remain substantial with seizures during 2015–2021 indicating an illegal trade in 162 countries and territories affecting around 4,000 plant and animal species. Beyond the immediate conservation threat to target species, population reductions caused by wildlife trafficking can play a role in triggering ecosystem-level impacts by disturbing interdependencies between different species and undermining related functions and processes, including those important to climate change resilience and mitigation. Wildlife crime also threatens the socioeconomic benefits people derive from nature, whether as a source of income, employment, food, medicine or other values. It further corrodes good governance and the rule of law through corruption, money-laundering and illicit financial flows.

The report notes that transnational organized crime groups are active in some illicit wildlife markets, where they exploit inconsistencies and weaknesses in regulation and enforcement, adapting their methods and routes continuously to evade detection and prosecution. Corruption also plays a key role in undermining regulation and enforcement actions against wildlife trade.

The 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report tracks all these issues, trends and more

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 169p.

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Three Key Questions ♦ How are the activities of law enforcement agencies impacted by climate change and what are the implications of this for future practice? ♦ What capacities and organisational attributes are required by law enforcement agencies in responding to the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation? ♦ What improvements can be made to law enforcement responses to the challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation? Legal and Professional Contexts ♦ Crimes that affect the environment are increasingly being prioritised by the United Nations and other international bodies, as well as regional and domestic authorities. ♦ A paradigm shift is occurring due to changing circumstances that is reshaping contemporary responses to the law enforcement mission and mandate. This has ramifications for how law enforcement work is carried out, the resources needed to do so, and the collaborations required across agencies and between community and government. Crimes that Affect the Environment and Climate Change ♦ Crimes that Affect the Environment Contributing to Climate Change Deforestation – diminishment of carbon sinks, adding to carbon emissions; Illegal mining – air pollution; polluting freshwater systems, Wildlife trafficking – loss of certain species and individuals may undermine the functioning of ecosystems exacerbating conditions leading to climate change; Land grabs and changing land uses – lost carbon stock and sequestration, adding to carbon emissions. ♦ Climate Change Affecting Existing Categories of Crime Water crimes – resource scarcity and water theft; Clandestine migration – climate refugees; Illegal mining – rare earth minerals for new renewable energy systems; Social conflict – aggression and violence over scarce resources, social strains arising from biophysical changes, changes in routine activities depending on weather. ♦ Cross-Over Crimes Associated with Crimes that Affect the Environment and Climate Change Homicide – killing of park rangers, environmental activists, local residents; Organised crime groups and networks – fraudulent green investments, low-price food on-sales; Corruption – direct (criminal such as document fraud) and moral (unethical policies and practices that foster carbon emission pollution); Disaster-related fraud – building practices, insurance claims, victim scams and identity theft. Climate Change Risks and Disasters ♦ The planet is heating up at an unprecedented rate and this is accelerating. The effects of this are manifest in high impact and extreme weather events and increases in all manner of risks and harms. This is global in nature. ♦ The notion of harmscape captures the idea of intersecting and interacting harms. Climate change impacts and risks are becoming increasingly complex and more difficult to manage. ♦ The intersectional dimensions of responding to climate disruption include three main features: climate related crimes (e.g., water theft); climate-related events (e.g., wildfires); and climate-related problems (e.g., prolonged homelessness), all of which are interconnected. Capacities and Capabilities of Law Enforcement Agencies ♦ While there may be rising interest and need for greater law enforcement intervention arising from climate-related events and trends, at present there is generally insufficient capacity to meet the challenges of either crime fighting or disaster and emergency management. ♦ A change in and pluralisation of police roles is occurring, in which greater attention is being devoted to matters such as climate change mitigation, reduction of climate-related crime or first responder work on the frontline of environmental disasters. ♦ There are a multitude of stakeholders and agencies with which law enforcement must engage and collaborate with, with numerous tensions and opportunities evident at the grassroots level with regard to state-community relations. A New Paradigm for Global Law Enforcement ♦ A robust response to climate-related crime and disaster events hinges to a large extent on the strength and resilience provided by the community and NGO sectors working in conjunction with state authorities. ♦ A wide range of equipment and technologies are required in the fight against climate-related crimes and in responding to disasters and emergencies. These need to be shared out at the global scale. ♦ Information management systems are crucial to both combating climate-related crimes as well as predicting and responding to climate-related disasters and their short- and long-term social and environmental consequences. ♦ It is vital that multi-agency and multi-disciplinary teams and forums be provided that bring together in a coordinated manner the knowledge, expertise and experience of a wide range of practitioners. ♦ A range of strategic actions are required for effective environment and climate-related global law enforcement. The emphasis must be on preparedness and rapid mobilisation of human and technical resources.

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 70p.

By Public Safety Canada

The National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking (National Strategy) is a five-year (2019-2024) strategy aiming to strengthen Canada’s response to human trafficking. It follows from the National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking which expired in 2016. The National Strategy is a whole of government endeavour that aligns efforts with the internationally recognized pillars of prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership. Canada has added a fifth pillar, empowerment, to enhance support and services to victims and survivors of human trafficking. The activities under the pillars are the responsibility of many partner departments and agencies. Several partner departments and agencies received funding for activities specific to the National Strategy. These include, Public Safety Canada (PS), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). Other departments and agencies supported efforts under the National Strategy with pre-established funding. These partners are the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Global Affairs Canada (GAC), Justice Canada (JUS), and Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Additionally, Statistics Canada (StatsCan) receives funding from PS for activities that support the National Strategy, including data collection and research projects.

The purpose of the evaluation was to assess the relevance, effectiveness and efficiency of the National Strategy. The evaluation covered the period from fiscal year 2019-2020 to 2022-2023 and was conducted in accordance with the Treasury Board Policy on Results and the Directive on Results.    

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada 2024. 50p

By Jacob Phelps, Steven Broad, Jennifer Mailley 

  KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) persists in contravention of laws specifically aimed to address negative impacts of over‐exploitation of nature, one of the most critical threats to the world’s biodiversity. 2. By reducing and otherwise negatively impacting populations of wildlife species, IWT undermines the functioning of ecosystems, with significant potential to harm related natural processes – including those affecting climate.    3. The causal chains that demonstrate and explain these links are diverse, complex, and little researched and they are important to long‐term climate stability and mitigation of climate change impacts.    4. Some key pathways linking IWT, ecosystems and climate:

IWT is both a reflection of weak environmental governance, and an exacerbating factor to it. It is often associated with ineffective regulation, 6. Given the importance of climate stability and the long‐term persistence of carbon stocks, adopting broader time horizons and a more holistic view that considers biodiversity is important to climate mitigation and stability. Adopting this type of longer, broader view that recognizes the centrality of biodiversity to many ecosystem processes highlights the clear need for improved governance of wildlife resources and recognizes the need for strong justice system responses to environmental crimes.   7. It is critical to keep in mind that this relationship works in both directions. As climate change impacts take shape, natural resource conflicts will worsen as people and wild species adapt to evolving living conditions. It is very likely that this will lead to new incentives for and patterns of illegal wildlife trade, and in turn new interventions to contain the resulting environmental harm. 8. The links between IWT, biodiversity and climate are still under researched and not well understood. This Research Brief is the first effort to frame these linkages, which are important to understand how policies aimed at addressing IWT, biodiversity and climate can be better integrated.   

Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Drime. 2022. 20p.

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)

Crimes that affect the environment are among the most profitable and fastest growing types of international criminal activity. In resolution 10/6, adopted in 2020, the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime expressed its alarm at research indicating that crimes that affect the environment had become some of the most lucrative transnational criminal activities and were often closely interlinked with different forms of crime and corruption, and that money-laundering and the illicit financial flows derived from them may contribute to the financing of other transnational organized crimes and terrorism. It affirmed that the Organized Crime Convention constitutes an effective tool and an essential part of the legal framework for preventing and combating transnational organized crimes that affect the environment and for strengthening international cooperation in this regard and requested the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, subject to the availability of extrabudgetary resources, and within its mandate, to provide technical assistance and capacity-building to State parties, upon request, for the purposes of supporting their efforts to effectively implement the Convention in preventing and combating transnational organized crimes that affect the environment. In 2019, the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, in its resolution 8/12, noted with concern the role that corruption can play in crimes that have an impact on the environment and expressed concern that money-laundering may be used to disguise and/or conceal the sources of illegally generated proceeds, as well as to facilitate crimes that have an impact on the environment. In 2021, the Fourteenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice adopted the Kyoto Declaration on Advancing Crime Prevention, Criminal Justice and the Rule of Law: Towards the Achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in which it reiterated the United Nations commitment to adopt effective measures to prevent and combat crimes that affect the environment, including, among other crimes, illicit trafficking in hazardous and other wastes, by making the best possible use of relevant international instruments and by strengthening legislation, international cooperation, capacity building, criminal justice responses and law enforcement efforts aimed at, inter alia, dealing with transnational organized crime, corruption and money-laundering linked to such crimes, and illicit financial flows derived from such crimes, while acknowledging the need to deprive criminals of proceeds of crime.2 In the same year, the General Assembly, in its resolution 76/185, urged Member States to take these same measures. 

Vienna: UNODC, 2022. 133p.

By Alexander Huezo

Focusing on the lived experiences of Afro-Colombians processing and resisting violence against their ecological communities, Visions of Global Environmental Justice employs accounts of the supernatural narratively and analytically to frame a contemporary struggle for environmental justice. The book applies Achille Mbembe’s theorization of necropolitics to the environmental racism of the US War on Drugs in Colombia, specifically the aerial eradication of coca in the comunidades negras of the Pacific Coast. Through critical examination and deconstruction of transnational mythmaking and local oral tradition, Visions of Global Environmental Justice illustrates that non/humans rendered expendable by US-driven drug (necro)politics are indispensable to both the conceptualization and the realization of environmental justice globally. Far from being a study singularly focused on the symptoms of environmental issues, this book creatively guides us toward a broader understanding of environmental racism and justice across geographic scales and non/human agencies.

Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2025.

By Jordi Janssen, Andrew Lemieux, Amy Nivette, Stijn Ruiter

Wildlife are natural resources utilised by many people around the world, both legally and illegally, for a wide range of purposes. This scoping review evaluates 82 studies nested in 75 manuscripts to provide an overview of the documented motivations and methodologies used, and to identify and analyse knowledge gaps in the motivations of illegal harvesters. Studies differ in what data is collected, often leaving out important contextual variables. We find 12 different motivations, frequently interlinked and multiple often play a role in the same harvesting incident. Motivations seemed to differ between taxa. Future research needs to move beyond a general description but recognise the complexity of the matter and allow for context-specific adjustments to facilitate a deeper understanding of these motivations.

GLOBAL CRIME 2024, VOL. 25, NO. 2, 97–121

By Nick Van Doormaal, A.M. Lemieux, Stijn Ruiter, Paul M.R.R. Allin, Craig R. Spencer

Many studies of wildlife poaching acknowledge the challenges of detecting poaching activities, but few address the issue. Data on poaching may be an inaccurate reflection of the true spatial distribution of events because of low detection rates. The deployment of conservation and law enforcement resources based on biased data could be ineffective or lead to unintended outcomes. Here, we present a rigorous method for estimating the probabilities of detecting poaching and for evaluating different patrol strategies. We illustrate the method with a case study in which imitation snares were set in a private nature reserve in South Africa. By using an experimental design with a known spatial distribution of imitation snares, we estimated the detection probability of the current patrol strategy used in the reserve and compared it to three alternative patrol strategies: spatially focused patrols, patrols with independent observers, and systematic search patterns. Although detection probabilities were generally low, the highest proportion of imitation snares was detected with systematic search strategies. Our study provides baseline data on the probability of detecting snares used for poaching, and presents a method that can be modified for use in other regions and for other types of wildlife poaching.

Oryx , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , July 2022 , pp. 572 - 580

By Riku Lindqvist · Chiara Lombardini · Leila Suvantola2· Markku Ollikainen

Applying the rational choice model of crime, this study estimates the optimality of sanctions for environmental crimes, the social cost of these crimes and the expected gain to the offender with Finnish court data from 327 criminal cases in the period 2013–2018. Sensitivity analyses are conducted for the optimal fne, the expected gain from the crime and its social cost. The time-lag and uncertainties related to the restoration of the environmental harm are explicitly included in the model and the empirical analysis. The average fne was much lower than the optimal fne even when taking into account the constraint posed by the offenders' wealth and disregarding the time-lag and uncertainties related to the restoration of the environmental harm. The use of prison sentences was also suboptimal. Even when the illegal gain was fully forfeited, the expected gain from the crime to the offender remained positive. Our results suggest a need to increase the cost of punishment by higher fnes and reliable forfeiture of the illegal economic gain. They also point to the importance of systematically estimating both the environmental damage and the illegal gain from the crime as these were available respectively for only 24% (N=79) and 3% (N=11) of all cases.

European Journal of Law and Eco

By Marieke Kluin · Lisa Ansems · Jelle Brands

The public has grown increasingly concerned about environmental issues. However, few studies examine the perceived seriousness of environmental crimes. Those that do tend to focus on US citizens and compare crime seriousness ratings among different types of crimes, rather than examining the factors that shape perceptions of environmental crime seriousness. By employing a vignette survey among Dutch citizens (N=261), the current paper seeks to address this knowledge gap. It focuses on two such factors: (1) whether or not the environmental crime is committed intentionally, and (2) whether or not the environmental crime causes considerable harm. The results show that environmental crimes were perceived as more serious when committed intentionally and when they caused considerable harm. Furthermore, intentions affected perceived seriousness less in case of harm and harm affected perceived seriousness less in case the crime was committed intentionally. Together, these findings enhance our understanding of the factors that shape the perceived seriousness of environmental crimes.

Crime, Law and Social Change (2025) 83:3

By Jeffrey E. Clutter , Samuel Peterson , Samantha Henderson and Cory P. Haberman

Weather variables, like temperature and precipitation, have long been established as predictors of criminal behavior. So too have researchers established the importance of controlling for potentially criminogenic places when predicting when and where crimes will occur at micro-level units of analysis. The current study examines the role that temperature and precipitation play, along with places, in the odds of street robbery occurrence on street blocks in Cincinnati, Ohio. Using multilevel modeling, with days clustered within street blocks, our results showed that temperature, but not precipitation, predicted increased odds of street robbery occurrence, even after controlling for the presence of potentially criminogenic places. We conclude that research should continue to examine these important relationships, specifcally how weather impacts the role of places in the formation of criminal opportunities

Crime Science (2024) 13:42

By V. Boilevin, A. Crosta and S.J. Hennige

Demand for totoaba swim bladders has created a transnational illicit supply chain network. Organised crime groups are instru-mental in this process, impacting Mexico at social, environmen-tal, economic, and political levels. There are five main points within the supply chain: the poachers in the Upper Gulf ofCalifornia, the Mexican illegal traders, the Chinese illegal traders in Mexico, illegal traders and retailers in China and Hong Kong,and the consumers and investors located primarily in China.Illegal fishers in Mexico use gillnets to capture totoaba, leadingto bycatch and decline of the critically endangered vaquita.There have been significant conservation efforts by the local and international communities to reduce this bycatch, but these have been unsuccessful in addressing the continued traf-ficking of totoaba and the decline of the vaquita. Here we highlight the complexity of the totoaba supply chain and argue that totoaba illegal trade has to be viewed as organised envi-ronmental crime rather than as a conservation issue. A particu-larly enforceable point in the chain is through the Chineseorganised crime group in Mexico, which is a crucial link toonward trafficking through ports and airports. While recent efforts have been made with regard to totoaba seizures and prosecutions, to dismantle the supply chain, strong transnational collaboration is needed at multiple levels, and in particular between Mexico, the USA, and China.GRAPHICAL

Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Volume 26, 2023 - Issue 2, 32p.

By Caroline Cox and Luke Hauser

ABSTRACT - The United Kingdom, with the introduction of the Ivory Act2018, is at the forefront of elephant protection, and it is hopedthat governmental commitments, made in the 25 YearEnvironment Plan, will see increased protection for other spe-cies at risk due to the illegal wildlife trade. However, one spe-cies that currently falls outside of the regulation of theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora (CITES) can be directly linked to the ivorytrade: the mammoth. The woolly mammoth became extinctmore than 10,000 years ago, but the genus Mammuthus, sinceits appearance in Africa c.5 ma, was one of the most successfulmegafaunal groups, radiating into 10 species and found acrossthe Northern Hemisphere from Siberia to Crete. As the worldwarms and the permafrost melts, mammoth tusks are beinguncovered across the Northern Hemisphere, particularly inSiberia’s Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). There are close similaritiesbetween the tusks of elephants and mammoths, leading con-servationists to fear that the increase in “ice ivory” heralds anew threat to elephants and our wider understanding of the“woolly” mammoth and its world.1. IntroductionThere are no accurate figures for the value of the illegal wildlife trade.1In common with other illegal activities, dealers in illegally sourced wildlifeproducts will not exhibit the kinds of behavior associated with legal traders(such as the completion of accurate tax returns).

Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, Volume 26, Issue 1, 2023, 26p.

By Monique C. Sosnowski msosnowski@jjay.cuny.edu, Judith S. Weis, and Gohar A. Petrossian

Imported to adorn tanks of marine aquarium hobbyists, the trade in live corals poses a significant risk to species that concurrently face threats from rising global temperatures, pollution, and destructive fishing practices. To better understand the live coral trade, we employed a crime script framework to analyze the process by which corals are harvested in two of the world’s major exporting countries—Indonesia and Fiji. We demonstrate that coral harvesting and export are complex activities that require a specific set of skills and tools. As such, various intervention strategies are proposed to address illegal coral harvesting at different stages of the crime script.

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice · March 2020, 20p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA UK).

In 2021, EIA’s report Off the Hook – The need for transparency and accountability in tackling wildlife crime advocated for better access to information and justice, stronger anti-corruption measures, increased international collaboration and more frequent evaluations of key indicators to improve transparency and criminal justice in the fight against wildlife crime.

Since then, EIA has continued to campaign for stronger responses to wildlife crime. Our research from 2024 highlights that significant concerns remain regarding transparency, information sharing and criminal justice in the global fight against wildlife crime.

This report is part of EIA’s regular assessment and focuses on four themes, which build upon the findings of the previous report.

London: by the Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA UK). 2024.. 22p

By The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK)

The global plastic waste trade is an environmental disaster hiding in plain sight, fuelling organised crime, working conditions that amount to human rights violations and devastation to human health and the environment.

The Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA’s) second instalment of our two-part Dirty Deals report pulls back the curtain on a system where misdeclared plastic waste, murky supply chains and shadowy brokers thrive, enabling millions of tonnes of waste to be dumped in countries unequipped to handle such huge volumes.

Despite the Basel Convention, which regulates the transboundary movement of hazardous and other wastes, including plastic waste, these illicit operations exploit loopholes and weak enforcement, creating a facade of ‘recycling’ while wreaking havoc on the local communities on which the Global North dumps its waste.

London: Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK), 2024. 28p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA)

Five years after EIA first revealed a widespread European illegal trade in hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) climate super pollutant gases, a new investigation has revealed that significant levels of trafficking persist, despite the worsening climate emergency.

Commonly used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, HFCs are being phased out under the European Union (EU) F-gas Regulation. Driven by high profits and weak law enforcement, organised criminals are closely associated with this illicit trade.

EIA’s previous investigation, 2021’s Europe’s Most Chilling Crime, highlighted Romania as a key entry point for illegal HFCs arriving in the EU. In our latest investigation, we uncovered evidence of traders routing illegal HFCs (sourced primarily in Türkiye and China) from Europe’s edge – Bulgaria – across the continent to the likes of Greece, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.

The investigation demonstrated that traders are becoming more sophisticated and adapting their tactics to elude detection, for example by avoiding banned disposable cylinders and disguising HFCs as less regulated hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) refrigerant alternatives.

London: by the Environmental Investigation Agency UK (EIA), 2024. 34p.

By The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK)

Your old wheelie bin might be funding organised crime and fuelling environmental injustice and human rights violations around the globe.

In the shadows of the global economy, an ominous trade flourishes. The latest investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) uncovers shocking evidence of how bad actors exploit regulatory weaknesses, legal loopholes and outdated practices in the global plastic waste trade, fuelling a thriving illegal market. This trade, characterised by its complexity and global reach, involves a multitude of actors, regulatory codes, transportation methods and market dynamics that create an ideal environment for illicit activities.

In the first of this two-part report, we reveal the latest scam: exploiting the UK‘s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for packaging recycling with discarded wheelie bins. Despite the efforts of law enforcement agencies to track and dismantle illegal operations, the ongoing consequences of illegal trade inflicts devastating harm to human health and the environment.

London: The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA UK) , 2024. 28p.