Illegal Waste Trafficking Emerges as a Major Environmental Threat in Europe

Illegal waste dumps in Oxfordshire, England, and near Bucharest, Romania, highlight a growing crisis driven by criminal networks profiting from illicit waste disposal. Europol reports that waste trafficking is expanding in scale and sophistication, with gangs bypassing legal disposal systems, falsifying documents, and exploiting weak enforcement across borders. OLAF estimates that 15–30% of all EU waste shipments may be illegal, worth up to €9.5 billion annually.

Criminal groups and complicit businesses often recycle valuable materials and dump the rest, especially electronics, old vehicles, plastics, and hazardous waste that carry high legal treatment costs. Recent cases include a massive waste pile in Oxfordshire linked to misused public contracts and the arrest of 13 people in Croatia for burying hazardous waste imported from multiple EU countries.

Romania remains a hotspot due to limited enforcement capacity despite strong laws. As the EU moves toward greener policies, uneven oversight continues to enable profitable environmental crime.

25-11-2025