Abstract
The illegal shipment of electrical and electronic waste, also called e-waste, from the European Union to China provides an example of a complex and serious environmental crime. Over the past decade or more, cross-border transport of e-waste from advanced economies to developing and newly industrialised economies has increased significantly and China represents the largest downstream destination for e-waste exported from Europe. Despite the fact that the import of e-waste into China has been officially banned since 2000, vast amounts of e-waste are still imported illegally into China every year and much of this enters the informal e-waste processing sector, where dismantling and recycling techniques are rudimentary compared to the formal sector and do not comply with health and environmental safety standards. Employing large numbers of local and migrant workers, the e-waste shipment and informal recycling sectors have also transformed social realities for people living in parts of China. The current EU legislative framework to fight illegal e-waste shipments, which translates the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal into EU law, primarily includes the Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR) and the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. Even though the WSR forbids the export of e-waste to non-OECD countries and extensive amendments have been recently introduced to both legislative instruments in order to improve enforcement and inspection, gaps and weaknesses still remain. These amendments have the potential to improve inspection and enforcement on the ground. Whether these will be effective will however depend on the willingness of the individual member states to provide the necessary resources (such as budget and staff) to implement the new provisions in a meaningful way. This chapter describes the illegal e-waste shipments from the EU to China, highlighting the estimated volumes of illegally exported e-waste, the key actors involved in the illegal activities, the victims and the harms they suffer, and the legal framework of both the EU and China aiming to tackle this environmental crime. As a conclusion, a set of policy recommendations is outlined that aim to support the fight against these illegal shipments.
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Notes
- 1.
E-waste is the informal name for electrical and electronic devices that are at the end of their ‘useful’ life.
- 2.
For instance, disassembling computers in small workshops or at home.
- 3.
When it comes to analysing environmental crime, one should understand the overlap between licit (formal) and illicit (informal) markets, as well as the close connection between legal and illegal actions. According to White (2009) a licit market is state regulated, open to public scrutiny, and based on legal activities, while an illicit market is unregulated, untaxed, and part of the subterranean, also called ‘black’, market. While there is a clear distinction between the two concepts, legal versus illegal and licit versus illicit, it should be recognised that an illegal activity may take place not only in the illicit (informal) sector but in the licit (formal) sector as well.
- 4.
The chapter is primarily based on two earlier case studies written by the authors as part of the EU-funded research project European Union Action to Fight Environmental Crime (EFFACE). See Geeraerts, Mutafoglu, and Illés (2015) and Geeraerts, Illés, and Schweizer (2015). For more information on the EFFACE project, see Efface.eu (2016).
- 5.
In order to address the weakness of the Basel Convention that it does not ban the export of hazardous waste from advanced economies to less advanced economies, the Basel Ban Amendment (Basel Convention, 2014) was introduced in 1995, which does not allow the export of hazardous waste from OECD to non-OECD countries.
- 6.
The CWIT project was a 2-year project ending in late 2015 funded by the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP7). It aimed to provide a set of recommendations to counter the illegal trade in e-waste. For more information, see Cwitproject.eu (2016).
- 7.
475,000,000 (inhabitants) × 0.015 tonnes (15 kg/inhabitant/year) = 7,005,000 tonnes.
- 8.
- 9.
Nevertheless, a considerable amount of these legally exported products become e-waste during the transport (e.g. as a result of insufficient protection during transport) or a short period of time after arriving in the destination country (BIO IS, 2013).
- 10.
0.15 × 7,005,000 (e-waste) + 0.3 × (0.2 + 0.2) × 7,005,000 (used electronic goods) = 1,891,350 tonnes.
- 11.
0.6 × 0.65 × 1,891,350 tonnes = 737,627 tonnes.
- 12.
The StEP project aims to tackles the problems of e-waste by bringing together all relevant stakeholders and carrying out research in the field.
- 13.
Zoeteman et al. (2009) estimated that in 2005 10–20 per cent of the total amount of EU e-waste was illegally exported to non-EU countries.
- 14.
0.15 × 9,918,000 (e-waste) + 0.15 × 9,918,000 (used electronic goods) = 2,975,400 tonnes.
- 15.
0.6 × 0.65 × 2,975,400 tonnes = 1,160,406 tonnes.
- 16.
While Zoeteman et al. (2009) and Geeraerts, Mutafoglu, and Illés (2015) merely took an assumption-based percentage from the volumes of e-waste produced in the EU, the CWIT project (Huisman et al. 2015) conducted detailed assessments of the e-waste flows in the EU28+2, such as e-waste officially reported as collected and recycled; e-waste recycled under non-compliant conditions in Europe; e-waste scavenged for valuable parts; and discarded e-waste to arrive at the number of 1.5 million tonnes that is exported from the EU.
- 17.
Huisman et al. (2015) also refer to significant amounts of refrigerator compressors (84,000 tonnes which are scavenged) and IT components (180,000 tonnes) which are initially processed within the EU but end up being exported to Asia for further processing. These flows are not taken into account when estimating the flows that are being exported out of the EU. Instead, these numbers are incorporated into the estimate of 1.7 million tonnes that are initially processed within the EU and more in particular into the 750,000 tonnes of scavenged e-waste parts and fractions which do not make it to the official collection points.
- 18.
This was done within the context of the ‘minimum export/import scenario’, assuming a minimum export out of the EU and a minimum import of EU-waste into China. In this scenario, it was assumed that 10 per cent of EU e-waste is exported illegally out of the EU (instead of 15 per cent in the ‘default scenario’), and that 10 per cent of e-waste is exported legally as used electronic goods (instead of 15 per cent).
- 19.
Waste tourists, who are in many cases involved in illegal activities, are individuals or groups who come from the destination countries and specifically travel to the EU to buy e-waste for export and/or sale (Interpol, 2009).
- 20.
The benchmark dose approach (BMD) by definition is a dosage which is associated with a specified change in response, the benchmark response (BMR). The benchmark dose level (BMDL) is the BMD’s lower confidence bound, and it is usually used as a reference point. For instance, for a BMR of 1 per cent, the BMDL, the benchmark dose lower confidence limit, can be interpreted as BMDL01 and indicates a dose where the response is likely to be smaller than 1 per cent. The term ‘likely’ is defined by the statistical confidence level, usually 95 per cent. The EFSA Panel determined that the reference point for the risk characterisation of lead when assessing the risk of intellectual deficits in children measured by the full-scale IQ score is 12 μg/L (B-Pb) at the 95th percentile lower confidence limit of the benchmark dose (BMD) of 1 per cent extra risk (BMDL01). For this BMDL of 12 μg/L (B-Pb), the corresponding dietary lead intake value for developmental neurotoxicity in 6-year-old children calculated by the EFSA Panel is 0.50 μg/kg bw per day (EFSA, 2009)
- 21.
The blood levels exceeded the BMDL01 of 12 μg/L (corresponding to the 0.50 μg/kg bw per day dietary intake value) multiple times, with most blood lead levels significantly higher than 100 μg/L (or 10 μg/dl) (EFSA, 2010)
- 22.
More detailed data on the number of children exposed to e-waste, on blood lead levels in children, and on the contribution of e-waste exposure to these blood lead levels. It remains to be seen whether these data can be generated or will become available in the near future.
- 23.
The WSR classifies waste as ‘green’ (less hazardous) or ‘amber’ (more hazardous) and lists hazardous waste that is subject to export prohibition (EU Parliament and EU Council 2006).
- 24.
Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Norway, the Netherlands, and Slovenia.
- 25.
Even though the Chinese government has not confirmed this officially, Michael Lion, current chairman of Sims Metal Management Asia Limited, in a seminar in New York in June 2015 said that Part II of the Operation Green Fence may be coming soon (LeBlanc 2015).
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Illés, A., Geeraerts, K. (2016). Illegal Shipments of E–waste from the EU to China. In: Sollund, R., Stefes, C., Germani, A. (eds) Fighting Environmental Crime in Europe and Beyond. Palgrave Studies in Green Criminology. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95085-0_6
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