According to the United States Government, trash smugglers who illegally dump trash and other hazardous materials earn $10 to $12 billion.

Source: United States International Crime Threat Assessment, “Environmental Crimes,” December 15, 2000, available at Federation of American Scientists, (last accessed: January 30, 2006).

Dutch Port Officials estimate that 16 percent of all trash exports out of its port in Rotterdam is illegal trash smuggling.

Source: Elizabeth Rosenthal, “Smuggling Europe’s Waste to Poorer Countries,” New York Times, September 26, 2009.

According to an article in the New York Times, it is 4 times more expensive to incinerate trash in the Netherlands than to ship it illegally to China for dumping.

Source: Elizabeth Rosenthal, “Smuggling Europe’s Waste to Poorer Countries,” New York Times, September 26, 2009.

The cost to a European company to properly dispose of toxic waste can cost around $1,000 per ton.

The cost to illegally dump toxic waste through an organization such as the Mafia costs about $2.50 a ton.

Source: George Monblot, “From toxic waste to toxic assets, the same people always get dumped on,” Guardian, September 21, 2009.

7 Billion Euros ($9.9 Billion) worth of toxic waste is smuggled each year by members of Italian Mafia clans.

The 7 Billion Euros in trash value is higher than the 6 Billion Euro value in 2008.

Source:  “Italy: Toxic waste traffic ‘worth 7 billion euros a year’,” Adnkronos, August 11, 2009.
2008 Figure: Robin Pomeroy, “Naples garbage is mafia gold,” Reuters, January 9, 2008.

13.1 million tons of toxic waste was smuggled out of Italy by the Italian Mafia in 2003.

Source:  Sophie Arie, “Italy’s Mafia banks on trash,” Christian Science Monitor, August 5, 2004.

Organized Crime groups in Canada are creating a new market in the trafficking of electronic trash such as used computers and cell phones. 

From the Globe and Mail:

The growing amount of laptops, portable phones and other electronics being tossed away in Canada is creating new trafficking opportunities for organized crime, the country’s law-enforcement officials are predicting.

The warning is contained in the 2008 annual report of the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, under a section devoted to emerging and future threats.

“The illicit trafficking and disposal of ‘e-waste’ – computers, televisions, cell phones – is driving a burgeoning environmental and human health crisis in several developing nations in Asia and, increasingly, in Africa,” the report says.

“Criminal networks can profit by collecting e-waste in developed countries such as Canada and selling it to ‘recyclers’ in developing nations.”

Things will get worse between next year and 2011, the report says, because millions of North American television sets will be made obsolete by digital broadcasting.

Slate Magazine explains why the Mafia is involved in trash smuggling.

It’s Mob Economics 101: Find a business that’s easy to enter and lucrative to control. Criminal organizations make lots of money from drugs, human trafficking, and counterfeit goods, but creating a monopoly on garbage collection is attractive because the business itself is legal, and public contracts return big profits. Compared with something like running a casino or grocery store, the logistics of taking trash from Point A to Point B are a no-brainer. Anyone with a truck and a couple of strong guys can make good money, and there’s always a demand for the service.

Here’s how it works: The mob organizes the trash-hauling businesses in a given city to prevent competition from driving down prices. They fix prices, rig bids, and allocate territories in such a way that customers can’t choose who picks up their garbage. The Camorra, a larger and older group than the Sicilian Mafia, have controlled the industry in Naples for about 25 years. The mob harasses non-Camorra garbage collectors and extorts money from them; meanwhile, its own companies do a shoddy job. The country’s Mafia groups have also illegally dumped toxic, industrial waste in Naples and other parts of the country.

A 2005 report by the European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL) found that ” international trade in waste is rapidly increasing.”

The report mentions the financial profit involved in trash smuggling creates a ” strong incentive for those in the waste chain to avoid controls over the movement and treatment of waste. Financially, there are strong incentives for waste producers, brokers, carriers and others, to exploit any opportunity to avoid these controls.”

Source: “IMPEL-TFS THREAT ASSESSMENT PROJECT: THE ILLEGAL SHIPMENT OF WASTE AMONG IMPEL MEMBER STATES: Project Report,” April 2006, (accessed: January 9, 2007).

In the European Union, an enforcement operation found 48 percent of waste shipments were illegal.

Source: United Nations Environment Programme, “Basel Conference Addresses Electronic Waste Challenge,” Press Release, November 27, 2006, (accessed: January 9, 2007).