Illegal waste Traffic and legitimate Market Players: legislative Opportunities in Italy

Though causing water and soil contamination and serious threats to the natural environment and human well-being, waste crime has not been considered a serious crime in any society. Moreover, while the problem of waste crime has often been portrayed as the result of organized crime’s involvement in the legitimate economy, scant attention has been given to the role of legitimate economic operators in illegal waste diversion activities. Seeking profitability and cost reduction, respected companies rationally opt for managing waste illegally in the course of everyday business activities when faced with crime opportunities. Existing research has suggested that legislative loopholes or complex and ambiguous law rules can provide crime opportunities, which profit-driven market players may choose to exploit at the expense of the environment. These studies so far have been hampered by the lack of an empirical analysis of whether existing laws may facilitate or encourage illegal waste diversion activities. The present dissertation sought to examine the problem, which is mainly legal in nature, from a criminological perspective. It examined waste crime committed by legitimate economic operators, focusing specifically on the crime prosecuted in Italy under the heading of illegal traffic of waste. The purpose of such crime-specific focus was to qualitatively explore how this specific type of waste crime is committed and further identify crime opportunities provided by the legal environment in which waste management activities regularly take place. More specifically, the research attempted to determine whether legislative shortcomings within the legislation that regulates the waste management sector may bestow opportunities to lawbreaking. The analysis of the data sources in the study provided reliable evidence about the involvement of legitimate market players in illegal waste diversion activities. The research not only revealed the process through which illegal waste traffic is perpetrated by legitimate market players, but also uncovered potential crime opportunities provided by the legislation that governs the waste management sector. Furthermore, the findings indicated that shortcomings within administrative controls play a substantial role in facilitating and encouraging illegal waste diversion activities. The results form the basis for inductive inferences about the existence of a relationship between crime opportunities provided by the law and administrative controls, and economic operators’ involvement in waste crime.