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LESSON 8 | What is the role of customs in combatting

illegal traffic in plastic waste?

This lesson describes the main steps required to undertake a risk assessment, develop risk indicators
and perform administrative and physical checks. It explains how to identify plastic wastes. Visual
screening and sampling are discussed as well as the use of customs codes during the identification
process. Special attention is paid to the safety of the officers whilst performing visual screening.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:

1. identify tools that can be applied to
target possible illegal shipments of
plastic waste;
2. explain what a risk assessment of
transboundary movement of plastic
waste entails; and
Questions are posed throughout the text for you
to check own understanding. The questions are
in various formats, from open (reflection points)
to multiple choice, true/false, ranking, and/or
matching. The answers can be consulted at the
end of the journal.

3. explain customs codes and other

systems that assist in identifying
plastic waste.

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WHAT IS the role of customs concerning transboundary movements of waste?

Customs authorities play a key role in ensuring

that the provisions of the Basel Convention are
complied with, including by facilitating legal trade
and by protecting their countries from unwanted
trade in hazardous and other wastes.

Governments have an increased ability to

enforce national legal frameworks in relation
to the import, transit, and export of hazardous
wastes if customs are aware of their role and if
they have the capacity to undertake the tasks
assigned to them.

The moment when wastes cross borders

provides a unique opportunity to verify that
any transboundary movement is taking place
in accordance with applicable rules. Customs
are among the most appropriate authorities to
perform monitoring and controlling actions at
this stage.
For customs to play their role in facilitating the
legal trade in hazardous chemicals and wastes
and in detecting and reacting to illegal traffic,
a legal and institutional framework should be
in place transposing the provisions of the Basel
Convention into national law, if required by the
national legislation.
This framework should clarify the customs’
competences to perform monitoring and
controlling activities relating to hazardous
and other wastes. In addition, this framework
should ideally provide for cooperation and
coordination at the national level between
customs and the other authorities responsible
for the implementation and enforcement of the
Basel Convention.

COMMON RISKS and concealment methods

One of the main reasons for the illegal trade
of plastic wastes is related to reduced costs.
Exporters will therefore use creative ways to hide
shipments of waste or hazardous waste to avoid
customs check.
When targeting illegal movements of hazardous
wastes, customs officers need to be aware of
the techniques used to conceal these illegal
shipments.
In the paperwork accompanying the shipment,
the contentious load will either not be mentioned
or will not be described accurately. For example,
wastes are wrongly classified as a product or
a second-hand good, or hazardous wastes are
wrongly declared as non-hazardous wastes.

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Examples of mis-declarations of hazardous and other wastes are:

E-waste and chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)-

containing refrigerators declared as second-
hand goods

Mixed household residues declared as paper or

plastic waste

Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB)-containing

transformers classified as metal scrap (Photo
source: UNIDO)

Cathode-ray tubes (CRT) classified as metal scrap

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Expired chemical and pigments declared

as products

In addition to concealing the true nature of a shipment, the goods that are illegally
traded are often physically hidden. Common concealment methods are:

Using a cover load: placing the illegal wastes

behind rows of goods or under layers of goods

Placing false labels on wastes or removing

old labels

Hiding e-waste in blinded and sealed

vehicles or trucks

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Mixing hazardous waste with non-hazardous

waste or used goods

Examples of deliberate misuse of harmonized system (HS) codes:

Waste plastics mixed with other wastes, medical

waste or used chemical bottles and municipal
solid waste. Declared illegally as plastic
scrap: 3915

Batteries, metal scrap contaminated with

hazardous waste and electronic wastes. Declared
illegally as metal scrap: 7204

Waste CRT monitors. Declared illegally as CRT

monitors: 8528

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Q1: What considerations should be addressed at national level for customs to play their role in
facilitating the enforcement of the Basel Convention?
□ The existence of a national legal framework
transposing the provisions of the Basel
Convention
□ The existence of an institutional
framework with appropriate mandates for
different actors
Q2: Mis-declaration (1) or concealment (2)?
____ Placing false labels on wastes
____CFC-containing refrigerators as second-
hand goods
____Placing the illegal wastes behind rows
of goods
____ Mixed household residues as plastic waste
WHAT IS risk management and how to perform risk assessments?
Risk management
Risk management is one of the key vehicles
for customs administrations to better meet
the demands and complexity of the trade and
operating environment, which is seeing customs
Intelligence-enabled risk management
The development and implementation of
an intelligence-enabled risk management
framework, along with embedding a risk
management culture within a customs
organization, has enabled more effective
decision-making at all levels of the organization
and in relation to all areas of risk. Today, risk
management is seen as one of the guiding
principles associated with modern customs
administration.
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□ Provisions clarifying the customs’
competences to perform monitoring and
controlling hazardous and other wastes
□ Provisions for cooperation and coordination
between customs and other national
authorities
____PCB-containing transformers as metal scrap
____Hiding e-waste in blinded and sealed
vehicles or trucks
____Mixing hazardous waste with non-
hazardous waste
____ Cathode-ray tubes classified as metal scrap
administrations endeavouring to address risk
wherever they are found and, increasingly, as
early in the supply chain as possible.
There is an increasing need to define a common
approach that enables customs administrations
across the globe to speak the same language
about the methodology they utilize to both
identify and treat potential risks.

Operational level
At the operational level, a modern risk-based
compliance management approach is increasingly
enabled by intelligence support. Intelligence
enabled risk management brings together
information and knowledge learned by customs
with a systematic approach for identifying and
treating risks of greatest consequence. This is a
critical process, as high risks identified through
Steps of risk assessments
The risk assessment process is part of the overall
risk management. The risk assessment is divided
into three steps:
1. This step identifies the risk and
results in a description of the risk by
answering questions like: what is the
risk, where does it take place, why does
it take place, when does it occurs, who
are involved and how does it appear.
2. The second step is to analyse the
risk by aiming to calculate how
often speciþc risks may occur,
the magnitude and the likely
consequences if the risk happens
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the risk management process will often be greater
in number than customs’ resources and ability
to respond. This is the point where intelligence
informs decision-makers within customs of a
recommended priority order for intervention and
assist decisions about where customs resources
should be mobilized and deployed.
3. The third step is to evaluate the
risk followed by setting priorities
and identifying next steps (e.g. the
development of risk profiles.) The
performance of a risk assessment
is linked the development of an
inventory of trade and the generation
of plastic wastes data. Both exercises
need similar (historic) data from
different sources and on different
parameters.

Whilst the ‘standard’ inventory provides an
overview of legal trade and declared commodities,
the outcomes of the risk assessment will give
more insight in the possible size and scale of
legal trade.
Assessing risk of plastic waste and indicators
Risk indicators and search parameters are
developed following completion of the risk
identification and analysis phases of the risk
assessment.
Risk indicators flag potential problems with
a particular shipment. If customs work with
electronic systems, profiles can be built into their
electronic systems.
Risk indicators can relate to:
▪ The object of the trade (e.g. wrong
harmonised system (HS) codes)
▪ Documents (e.g. a missing or falsified
movement document)
▪ Packaging (e.g. damaged packaging or
mislabelling)
▪ Concealment methods (e.g. mixing
hazardous with non-hazardous waste, or
mixing waste with products)
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Q3: High risks identified through the risk
management process will often be greater in
number than customs’ resources and ability
to respond. That is why it is important that
decision-makers within customs benefit from
timely information enabling the prioritization
of interventions and decisions about where
customs resources should be mobilized and
deployed. This is known as:
□ Time-enabled risk management
□ Intelligence-enabled risk management
□ Personnel-enabled risk management
Risk indicators can include, for example, ‘escape
code’ (the wrong use of HS codes to circumvent
customs controls), the value of the goods,
routes and destination countries and involved
companies.
▪ Customs procedures (e.g. returned
merchandise, guarantee)
▪ Routing (e.g. use of intermediary country)
▪ Individuals/companies (e.g. unlicensed,
P.O. box address, history)
▪ Countries concerned (e.g. high risk
countries known for hazardous waste
generation and lack of own capacity, or
TBM of plastic waste between Parties to
the Basel Convention and non-Parties)
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Q4: In brief, what does each step of a risk

assessment include? Match:

1. Description of the risk A. Risk evaluation

2. Calculation of how often specific risks B. Risk identification
may occur, the magnitude and the
C. Risk analysis
likely consequences
3. Setting priorities and development of
risk profiles

Challenges!

Identifying imports and exports of plastic waste
only based on HS code 39.15 dismisses the fact
that possible illegal traffic of plastic waste is
disguised and therefore declared under different
codes. To complete the so-called ‘escape codes’
inventory, such as 3908 and 3920 for plastic,
other codes, such as 4707 for paper scrap or
63.05 for used big bags, could be added as well.
HS codes for e-waste are applicable as of 2022
under heading 8548. Another challenge for
tracking the imports and exports of e-waste is
the second-hand products versus waste.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have reached the end of lesson 8 and the end of
the course.

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Answers:

Q1: all statements are correct Q3: Intelligence-enabled risk management

Q2: Q4: 1-B, 2-C, 3-A

2 Placing false labels on wastes

1 CFC-containing refrigerators as
second-hand goods

2 Placing the illegal wastes behind

rows of goods

1 Mixed household residues as plastic waste

1 PCB-containing transformers as
metal scrap

2 Hiding e-waste in blinded and sealed

vehicles or trucks

2 Mixing hazardous waste with non-

hazardous waste

1 Cathode-ray tubes classified as metal scrap

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