Our understanding of illicit waste trafficking (IWT) is in its embryonic stages; most notably, the transnational nature of this phenomenon has hitherto been neglected in extant empirical research. This study provides the first analysis of the possible coorrelates of transnational IWT at a global level. Through recourse to information extracted from the official Basel Convention National Reports, we constructed a network of the most relevant IWT connections between 148 countries. Next, we quantitatively investigated the role of specific potential factors that influence the structure of this transnational network. Our results indicate that illicit waste is trafficked toward poorer and more insecure countries, primarily via former colonial connections. As such, IWT poses a direct threat to the sustainable development of these countries. Mere adherence to international treaties and promulgation of environmental laws does not in and of themselves explain whether a country is part of the global IWT network, although the establishment of dedicated courts and tribunals does reduce the risk of being a recipient of trafficked waste. Solid anticorruption measures and a strong rule of law increased the likelihood of being a source country in the IWT network, which, in turn, calls for a more global approach to the management of environmental issues.

中文翻译：

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全球废物贩运及其相关因素

我们对非法废物贩运 (IWT) 的理解处于萌芽阶段；最值得注意的是，这一现象的跨国性质迄今在现有的实证研究中一直被忽视。本研究首次分析了跨国 IWT 在全球范围内的可能相关性。通过利用从官方巴塞尔公约国家报告中提取的信息，我们构建了一个由 148 个国家/地区之间最相关的内河航运连接网络。接下来，我们定量研究了影响这个跨国网络结构的特定潜在因素的作用。我们的结果表明，非法废物主要通过前殖民联系被贩运到更贫穷和更不安全的国家。因此，内河航运对这些国家的可持续发展构成直接威胁。仅仅遵守国际条约和颁布环境法本身并不能解释一个国家是否是全球内河航运网络的一部分，尽管设立专门的法院和法庭确实降低了成为贩运废物接收者的风险。坚实的反腐败措施和强有力的法治增加了成为内河航运网络来源国的可能性，这反过来又要求采取更加全球化的方法来管理环境问题。