The Netherlands complies with international waste shipment regulations but has limited insight into impact on illegal flows
Public Prosecution Service decides not to prosecute a third of infringements of European environmental regulation.
The Netherlands complies with the obligations arising from the European Waste Shipment Regulation. Internationally, the country performs well. The enforcement authorities, however, do not know whether the thousands of checks carried out by the police service, Customs and the Netherlands Shipping Inspectorate are sufficient to deter illegal waste shipments. A lot of waste is shipped to China and Africa. The Netherlands Court of Audit recommends that ICT systems be modified so that they can explain the impact of individual enforcement measures and the functioning of the waste system as a whole. The Public Prosecution Service decides not to prosecute three out of ten cases. This is far higher than the service's own target. Further study must explain why the rate is so high.