Waste Crime - Waste Risks: Gaps in Meeting the Global Waste Challenge

The ULABs are valued for their lead content, which is recy- cled for new products. Because of its toxic nature, lead repro- cessing requires strict control over possible environmental pollution and high health and safety standards to protect workers. The costs of environmentally sound management of the batteries can, therefore, be high. Seeking cheaper options for recycling leads, in some cases, to illegal exports. The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) for North America, in its latest assessment of hazardous trade, concluded that the US has good control of ULABs exports to the main destination countries (Mexico, Canada, and South Korea). The US EPA, however, has no records for the other 47 destination countries receiving ULABs (Commission for Environmental Cooperation 2013). An emerging and potentially growing source of hazardous waste: obsolete counterfeit pesticides Although the scope of the problem at the global level has yet to be evaluated due to recent awareness of its existence, it is estimated that the trade in illegal pesticides in Europe alone represents more than 10 per cent of the total world market, and that more than 25 per cent of the pesticides in circu- lation in some EU member states are illicit or counterfeit (Europol 2011). This illegal trade generates vast profits for its operators and huge losses for both legitimate business and tax collectors within national governments. But the cost is more than finan-

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