Innovation, strategy and policy were among the key themes guiding discussions at the ‘Smarter waste regulation and pollution crime enforcement’ conference co-hosted by the LIFE SMART Waste project and INTERPOL’s Pollution Crime Working Group (PCWG) in Brussels during November 2019.
As the focus of a common project between INTERPOL and the LIFE SMART Waste project, the emerging criminal trends in the illicit trade in plastic waste were examined. Participants shared lessons learned from enforcement activities, such as those identified during INTERPOL-coordinated operations, and from current projects, such as WasteForce and LIFE SWEAP, that were presented by IMPEL Project Manager Nancy Isarin.
This allowed delegates to explore solutions together, also highlighting the innovative tools, techniques and policy recommendations developed by the LIFE SMART Waste project. As such, this conference offered a platform to facilitate regional and international cooperation in the field of waste regulation and enforcement.
In addition, INTERPOL PCWG also aimed to review a broader range of pollution crime priorities at the conference, including the Organized Crime-Pollution Crime nexus and marine pollution crime (recently targeted in INTERPOL-coordinated global law enforcement operations). Dialogue was also initiated on new and growing criminal threats, such as shipbreaking and the illicit trade in batteries, in order to develop action plans to disrupt those illegal activities.
Find out more about the conference and watch videos of conference presentations in the latest LIFE SMART Waste project e-newsletter (December 2019).
Source: LIFE SMART Waste project