WasteForce is the project acronym for Deterring and disrupting illegal trade and management of Waste by developing Tools for Enforcement, Forensics and Capacity Building. WasteForce wil run for two years, terminating end of 2020.
WasteForce is subdivided into work packages, with differing task leaders, time tables and subjects. They are all aiming towards delivering outputs contributing to and reaching the overall project’s objectives.
Illegal management and trade of waste causes significant damage to the environment, undermines the health of millions of people, and distorts fair competition. It can result in loss of income to authorities, while providing significant financial gain for those illicitly involved. Despite strong efforts to better detect and investigate waste crimes, it remains quite challenging to carry out proper investigations and prosecutions. There is a need for more harmonised prosecutions strategies, increased national capacities, and enhanced international operational collaboration.
The WasteForce project aims at boosting the operational activities and capacities of authorities involved in the fight against illegal trade and management of waste through:
- development of new practical tools and methodologies
- implementation of multi-stakeholder capacity building activities
- support of operational networking among practitioners in Europe and with their counterparts in the Asia- Pacific region, one of the main regions of destination of illicit waste shipments.
To achieve these objectives, the project will provide beneficiaries with hands-on up-to-date instruments, including strategic information sharing tools and methodologies, and forensics tools, to facilitate their everyday work in detecting illegal trade and management of waste. Building on those instruments, the project will organise multi-disciplinary training sessions and webinars to enhance authorities’ capacities. Looking at the international routes of transboundary waste shipments, the project will also seek to enhance international operational networking between Europe and the Asia-Pacific region through information-sharing activities and dedicated training materials. The project will contribute to build stronger relationships among key stakeholders in the cross-border waste chain that can continue after the project.
The WasteForce project builds upon and aims at expanding the results of the DOTCOM Waste project (www.dotcomproject.eu). WasteForce will use, update and expand the DOTCOM online training toolkit and the WATCH-IT App for environmental inspectors, and replicate the approach and methodology of the multidisciplinary trainings and webinars.
