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

Cross border movement and routes Smuggling, from small-scale to large, occurs all over the world, from waste tour- ists in northern Scandinavia to major smuggling hubs in South Asia. Shipping is the main route for overseas transportation, with millions of containers crossing borders. Control over the main ports in Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia is limited. Thousands of containers arriving in Southeast Asia are not claimed, which suggests that they might contain hazardous waste. Over time, this could cause serious problems for the environment and human health.

Waste shipment routes Over the last few decades, cross-continent transport has increased markedly in volume with new intermodal haulage methods, such as containerization (the transport of containers using multiple transport modes, such as rail and truck). The standardizationof container dimensionshasmade this possible. Containerization has been a major element in globalization by making it possible to link different parts of the globe. In 2009, approximately 90 per cent of non-bulk cargo shipments were moved by containers on board ships (Ebeling 2009). The rise of the shipping container has changed the trading fortunes of entire regions. The shipment of non-hazardous waste from developed to developing countries takes place largely via ship- ping containers. The scale of waste exports and the routes used closely track the major global shipping routes.

Ships transporting goods from Asia to Europe offer cheap freight rates on the return leg, as the demand for European products in Asia is low and ships want to avoid shipping empty containers. The disparity between Chinese domestic capacity and domestic supply of resources has resulted in an increase in commodity prices, which underpins the trade in non-haz- ardous wastes within and outside Europe. This change largely coincides with increasingly challenging recycling targets in Europe, leading to an increased supply of recyclable waste. Broadly speaking, there is a hierarchical arrangement of ports within Europe, with large-scale load centres and secondary feeder-port facilities. The large ports also have an extensive network of land (rail and road) and inland-water feeder services. In northern Europe, larger ports – such as

Main container shipping routes Main container shipping routes

North Atlantic Ocean North Atlantic Ocean

Europe Europe

Far East Asia Far East Asia

North America North America

Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean

Middle East Middle East

Pacific Ocean Pacific Ocean

Gulf of Aden Gulf of Aden

Million TEU 1 in 2010 Million TEU 1 in 2010

South America South America

South Asia South Asia

Africa Africa

2

20

South Atlantic Ocean South Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean Indian Ocean

Malacca Strait Malacca Strait

5 10 2 5 10

45 20

45

Sources: Lloyd’s Register and Maritime Strategies International Ltd. Map reproduced by courtesy of Philippe Rekacewicz - http://visionscarto.net Sources: Lloyd’s Register and Maritime Strat gies International Ltd. Map reproduced by courtesy of Philippe Rekacewicz - http://visionscarto.net 1. TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit). This unit is used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals, based on the volume of a 20 or 40 foot-long shipping container. The container circulation less than 1 million TEU is not represented on the map. 1. TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit). This unit is used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals, based on the volume of a 20 or 40 foot-long shipping container. The container circulation less than 1 million TEU is not represented on the map.

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