The word “illicit” conjures images of illegal and socially harmful products, such as drugs and weapons. But when it comes to illicit trade in waste, these permeate our economies in very conspicuous ways. Illicit waste trade is considered the most profitable environmental crime and encompasses activities across sorting, transporting, and disposing of waste that does not abide by regulations. The profit generated from illicit waste amounts to US$ 10–12 billion annually, which puts it on a par with other major crime areas such as human trafficking. Globally, the illicit trade of waste flows from the Global North to the Global South, particularly towards West and East Africa and Southeast Asia.
Waste trade has garnered increasing news and policy attention, such as the international shipments of plastic waste that triggered unilateral action by countries such as China in the mid 2010s, and later by the multilateral community through the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments in 2019. These shipments are facing increasing resistance by many importing countries. Discussions have also expanded from plastics to other areas, such as second-hand clothes and end-of-life energy technologies (such as batteries), which break international or national laws depending on how goods enter markets.
But the critical question is: What are the alternatives to outright banning?” There is value in waste, which can be retrieved if we incorporate material recovery systems in product design, use, reuse, and disposal. We need to design, enable and implement better systems that enable longevity and reuse, and appropriate disposal. There is also a need for enhanced understanding of the economic realities and regulations on the ground that can hamper effective solutions. More dialogue is required between policymakers and those that manufacture and use the technologies and services, i.e. the private sector. In response to this need, UNCTAD, as technical delivery partner for the Programme took the opportunity to invite Dr Amrita Kundu and Ms Michelle Wilson, who are leading SMEP-funded research, to the 14th session of the UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Commission in Geneva. The SMEP grantees participated in the Special Session on Illicit Trade and Waste with the objective of providing a better understanding of the scale, scope, and dynamics of illicit trade flows in solid waste.
Dr Kundu and Ms Wilson brought direct insights from the field on how the “illicit” might become circular, within a positive, value-adding opportunity. The event aimed to foster collaboration among stakeholders thus ensuring that policies may be better tailored to address the root of the problem, from a development perspective.
Concrete examples on solutions that are being tested with in the value chain are hard to come by and adding this substance to the policy discussions was invaluable. This was reflected in the many comments and questions from attending Member States who called for increased international coordination and collaboration to tackle these often poorly understood issues.
Amrita Kundu, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University McDonough School, is leading a research team to address lead acid battery recycling in Bangladesh. Dr Kundu notes that increased consumption (and disposal) of electronics and renewable energy technologies have led to a booming scrap metal trade and recycling business worldwide. But it presents challenges, such as informal metal recycling (especially toxic metals such as lead) and illicit cross border trade, which can result in numerous environmental and human health impacts, particularly in the developing world where communities are more vulnerable and less equipped to address these challenges.
Dr Kundu brought insights from her research on circularity in batteries and in the lead supply chains in Bangladesh to the panel discussion. Technology and microfinance solutions can enable formal reverse logistics and supply chain solutions, and can be used to implement incentives for battery buy-back schemes that direct batteries towards formal recycling.
Dr Kundu also highlighted opportunities for new business models that incentivise manufacturers to bring beter quality batteries to market with extended useful life. The SMEP funded research project is currently piloting solutions to test demand for lithium and better quality lead-based batteries in the electric easy-bike sector. Her work received strong interest from a number of government ministries in Bangladesh, who are increasingly aware of the health impacts of lead exposure amongst the Bangladeshi population due to poor environmental controls in the unregulated recycling sector. Key points from Prof Kundu’s session include:
- Siloed approaches, such as trade barriers, for national interest or for supporting local manufacturing can lead to environmental, societal and economic losses (e.g. high import tax on good-quality batteries imported into Bangladesh has led to a proliferation of low-quality lead batteries in the domestic market with a high rate of informal recycling).
- There is a need for national and international trade policies to consider the durability and longevity of products that enter a country or that are manufactured within a country, such as through trusted labelling backed by conformity assessment systems.
- Traceability systems and technologies have a role to play, such as tracing or tagging of products and waste along the supply chain for measuring value generated and associated incentives.
- Interdisciplinary approaches and collaboration are vital, such as new business models that transcend industries – which is the case with batteries in Bangladesh.
- Think twice before classifying material as waste – there is second-hand use of products (that extend product life) and recycling (especially of high-value metals, which face increasing market demand as the electronics and renewable energy sectors continue to grow).
Lastly, Dr Kundu noted a need for educating and upskilling this sector to enable improved recovery of economic value from waste. This will have the dual benefit of securing and improving the livelihoods of people dependent on this sector as well as reducing environmental harm.
The SMEP team asked Prof Kundu for her reflections on how participation in the dialogue could be valuable for her work under SMEP Programme funding . “For applied researchers, dialogue at this level is an important outcome. It allows new ways of thinking to be transferred from domain experts like me to national and international policymakers. By bringing practical case studies and new linkages to these discussions, a policymaker may be able to apply the thinking effectively to other unrelated areas. It can start a chain reaction of change: A different way of thinking about solutions that are beyond regular pollution monitoring and control methods.”
Prof Kundu also reflects on the value of profiling this relatively focused, but potentially impactful, SMEP-funded work: “Policymakers can learn about ways to leverage different financing and operating models to increase the durability of goods and to increase the formalisation of an informal sector (in the case of the Bangladesh battery market, this refers to three-wheeler vehicles and used battery collectors and scrappers).”
Bangladeshi Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Shanchita Haque, was part of the panel debate. Her presence was important to extend knowledge about important work taking place on the ground to the broader international community working on trade and environment policy. On that note, Prof Kundu was particularly excited about bringing her work to this forum. “It allows me to start conversations with the different relevant organisations and teams to further this project and other research areas that I am pursuing as well as identify direct ways of contributing to their ongoing work as a domain expert. “
WasteAid UK is implementing The Ugandan Circular Textile Project, under the SMEP programme, which aims to facilitate new value chain opportunities from discarded second-hand clothes that may be destined for landfill or end up polluting the environment.
The aim is to divert a portion of the textile waste from Kampala’s sprawling ‘Owino Market’ (home to 2,000 second-hand clothes traders) to a newly created Business Incubation Centre run by a vocational training college, the Management Training and Advisory Centre (MTAC). Here, tailoring students will learn how to repurpose these clothes into fashion items or into household products, such as cleaning cloths, or to shred the clothes to be used as stuffing in cushions and mattresses. The project is implemented in partnership with the Ugandan Tailors Association who are also training existing tailors to monetise these ‘waste’ textiles normally destined for landfill. The project will also focus on women traders and enable business-women at Owino market to tap into this new income stream.
Ms Michelle Wilson noted that there are currently four sets of codes (Basel Convention Codes, OECD Codes, European List of Waste Codes and HS Codes) that cross over various waste streams and, as a result, causes confusion. She was keen to bring her work to the event so that it can play a role in influencing the coding regime, thereby ensuring that clothing that cannot be sold or repurposed does not get traded and, as such, helping to reduce the textiles contribution to unuseable waste in less developed countries.
Ms Wilson shared insight in response to the question of where illegal textile trade occurred. Her team’s evidence suggests that this occurs mainly in countries that impose blanket bans on second-hand clothing imports. For example, South Africa and Nigeria in the past ranked 11th and 15th out of 50 destinations, respectively, for recipients of used-clothing exports from OECD countries, despite markets being officially closed. From the evidence it seems that outright bans are problematic to implement and sometimes encourage illegal trade as well as result in vital lost tax revenue for the state.
We asked Ms Wilson to comment on the ‘burning issues’ raised at the panel discussion most relevant to her areas of work. She sums up these key points:
- Implication for the classification of imported textiles: The WasteAid project in Uganda could significantly contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the types of textiles that need to be kept out of the secondary textile sector.
- The importance of good data across the board and how (incorrect) coding used in importation can negatively impact on data gathering.
- There is a need to have a clear understanding of when secondary textiles become waste without economic value. Just because the textiles cannot be used by someone immediately, it does not automatically render it as waste since someone else may be able to resell or repurpose it.
The discussion left Ms Wilson with food for thought on how the SMEP-funded project can shape or contribute to existing waste coding classifications, and whether the project can provide evidence around the effectiveness of blanket bans and what this would mean for ongoing local and regional policy reforms.
For both Dr Kundu and Ms Wilson, the time spent in Geneva with the SMEP Technical Assistance Team at UNCTAD was invaluable. It not only allowed them to profile their work but also to network with international organisations, such as the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and the International Trade Centre (ITC) – who have a small but dedicated team working on trade and environment, and presented interesting initiatives they are working on to support gender and trade. Of particular interest to WasteAid was an introduction to an initiative to support income generation and job creation for women-led businesses under the SheTrades project, which is a model that WasteAid is also seeking to emulate. Additionally, both SMEP grantees were introduced to similar circular textile projects underway in Kenya, Ghana and South America, and to work currently being undertaken by GIZ to identify end markets for repurposed textiles. These linkages are important for grantees to ensure synergies, avoid duplication of effort, and build powerful comparative learnings.
The event was followed by meetings between the SMEP grantees and the teams of the ITC, UNEP, Basel Convention, UNCTAD Gender Unit and others. These additional meetings were as enriching and informative for the SMEP projects as they were insightful and tangible for the agencies learning about their projects. Increasing the SMEP projects exposure and linkages to policy fora ensures they can be supported and replicated, helping to speed up transition to a cleaner, more inclusive economy.