Rotterdam District Court convicts multiple individuals of illegal trade in plastic waste from the Netherlands

On Friday 8 August 2025, Dutch news sources reported on a conviction for smuggling plastic waste from the Netherlands to several countries outside the EU. The NL Times, the AD, local news sources and the Dutch Inspectorate (ILT) reported the criminal convictions of 4 individuals and 3 companies for illegal trade in plastic waste, one of whom was also accused of money laundering. These convictions were all part of the same court ruling in which a man from Uithoorn was found guilty of illegally exporting 18 containers full of contaminated plastic waste to Thailand, Nigeria and Turkey in the period 2018-2019. The man, his wife and several business partners were found guilty of participating in this environmental crime. The joint penalty consisted of a few hundred hours of community service and fines with a total value of approximately 110,000 euros, in addition to the repayment of 141,000 euros in profit that the authorities had established in this case of illegal trade. The investigation was started by the ILT after receiving a report about the man. As the ILT emphasised, this is yet another example of what is happening in the shadows of the international plastic waste market. This case followed the modus operandi we described in our previous article: shipments of mislabelled and contaminated plastic waste, the lack of permits by exporters, and clearly unauthorised shipments without the permission of the authorities of the countries involved. Many other cases – such as the Malaysia case, where the country is being flooded with illegal shipments from the US – are currently attracting public attention. Interestingly, the industry partners we spoke to for our broader investigation into plastic waste shipments made contradictory statements. They unanimously claimed they had never heard of plastic waste smuggling and maintained that such a thing does not occur in the Netherlands. One interviewee even claimed that illegal trade in plastic waste is a fantasy created by news media and the lobby of environmental NGOs, who jointly created fake scenarios in which Dutch/European plastic waste was incorrectly processed in Southeast Asia, Turkey and Africa. On the other hand, other interviewees, namely two activists based in non-European countries that receive Dutch plastic waste, stated they had received personal and serious threats aimed at silencing them. This contradiction underlines the complex nature of the illegal trade in plastic waste and calls for in-depth research into the opaque sector of the plastic waste trade. Related tags More on this topic

On Friday 8 August 2025, Dutch news sources reported on a conviction for smuggling plastic waste from the Netherlands to several countries outside the EU. The NL Times, the AD, local news sources and the Dutch Inspectorate(ILT) reported the criminal convictions of 4 individuals and 3 companies for illegal trade in plastic waste, one of whom was also accused of money laundering. These convictions were all part of the same court ruling in which a man from Uithoorn was found guilty of illegally exporting 18 containers full of contaminated plastic waste to Thailand, Nigeria and Turkey in the period 2018-2019. The man, his wife and several business partners were found guilty of participating in this environmental crime. The joint penalty consisted of a few hundred hours of community service and fines with a total value of approximately 110,000 euros, in addition to the repayment of 141,000 euros in profit that the authorities had established in this case of illegal trade.

The investigation was started by the ILT after receiving a report about the man. As the ILT emphasised, this is yet another example of what is happening in the shadows of the international plastic waste market. This case followed the modus operandi we described in our previous article: shipments of mislabelled and contaminated plastic waste, the lack of permits by exporters, and clearly unauthorised shipments without the permission of the authorities of the countries involved. Many other cases – such as the Malaysia case, where the country is being flooded with illegal shipments from the US – are currently attracting public attention.

Interestingly, the industry partners we spoke to for our broader investigation into plastic waste shipments made contradictory statements. They unanimously claimed they had never heard of plastic waste smuggling and maintained that such a thing does not occur in the Netherlands. One interviewee even claimed that illegal trade in plastic waste is a fantasy created by news media and the lobby of environmental NGOs, who jointly created fake scenarios in which Dutch/European plastic waste was incorrectly processed in Southeast Asia, Turkey and Africa. On the other hand, other interviewees, namely two activists based in non-European countries that receive Dutch plastic waste, stated they had received personal and serious threats aimed at silencing them.

This contradiction underlines the complex nature of the illegal trade in plastic waste and calls for in-depth research into the opaque sector of the plastic waste trade.

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