Shipments of Waste Enforcement Actions Project

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

The EU aims to minimise the risks associated with managing waste through rules for waste management and targets for the recovery of waste materials. European regulation contains a number of measures to prevent the illegal shipment of waste, including obliging Member States to carry out waste shipment inspections and to cooperate with each other. IMPEL’s ‘enforcement actions’ projects have been the cornerstone of its waste shipment enforcement activities for several years, providing on-the-ground training and ensuring a minimum level of inspections in participating countries.

OBJECTIVES

To better detect, disrupt and prevent illegal waste trafficking, LIFE SWEAP targets an increase in the number of members taking part in IMPEL’s ‘enforcement actions’. It will also build the capacity of the various actors in the enforcement chain. This will involve intensifying collaboration, inspections and enforcement actions, developing innovative tools and technology, and establishing an EU wide dataset for the development of intelligence products (innovative enforcement, tracking and e-reporting tools).

The project supports the Circular Economy Package by ensuring the efficient use of resources and minimising the effect of legislative and economic loopholes, thanks to the effective enforcement of the Waste Shipment Regulation. The involvement of Europol, customs and national police forces will strengthen existing enforcement networks and improve the flow of intelligence on illegal shipments and the actors involved. This will allow a better understanding of trends and patterns in order to develop strategies to prevent and disrupt the illegal waste trade.

Expected results:

Increased participation of the European waste shipment regulatory community in IMPEL’s ‘enforcement actions’ projects. Involvement of all IMPEL member countries, other law enforcement agencies (e.g. police and customs) and the judiciary;

Trained and collaborative network of enforcement officers set up, training a total of 150 officers (training sessions in five different countries for some 30 customs officers per session);

A more uniform application of the Waste Shipment Regulation, through activities such as a new inspection app, webinars, an online training toolkit and inspection exchange programmes for officers;

Support for EU-wide coordinated inspections. Data from 12 000 inspections collated, reported and analysed on an annual basis;

A reporting app, leading to better comparison of results and analysis of data;

An improvedvisualisation tool that maps illegal shipments, scale and routes of waste shipments and creates open source maps showing the waste streams involved in illegal shipments, violation type, competent authority co-operation and penalty applied (including repatriations);

Improved international collaboration and information-sharing between authorities resulting in a fourfold increase in repatriations of waste and verifications at the intra-community level.