The 11th "Goddess of the Earth" campaign initiated by China Customs has successfully concluded and achieved record breaking results

Recently, the 11th "Goddess of the Earth" international joint law enforcement operation initiated by Chinese customs under the framework of the World Customs Organization has successfully concluded. This operation set a historical record with the participation of 120 member customs, seizing over 15500 tons of illegal waste, 168 tons of ozone depleting substances and hydrofluorocarbons, and 5.8 tons of other hazardous chemicals. With practical law enforcement results, it demonstrated the leading role and responsibility of Chinese customs in global cross-border environmental governance.

For the first time, textile waste has been included in the key control measures in this operation, successfully intercepting 1176 tons of related waste and responding accurately to the environmental challenges brought by the global fast fashion industry. Meanwhile, the law enforcement achievements in areas such as plastic waste and electronic waste have confirmed the deep alignment between international policies and law enforcement practices.

Since 2018, the Chinese Customs has continuously initiated the fourth to eleventh phases of actions to promote the "Goddess of the Earth" as the only public product for global customs ecological environment law enforcement cooperation. Ian Sanders, Secretary General of the World Customs Organization, highly appreciates the spirit of partnership and positive contributions demonstrated by Chinese customs in enhancing global customs capabilities and operational preparations, as well as their support for the World Customs Organization's Green Customs Initiative through the "Goddess of the Earth" series of actions. In this operation, Chinese customs anchored the goal of "green customs", joined forces with other countries to implement relevant international rules, strengthened targeted supervision with key regions such as Southeast Asia and West Africa in response to the drifting characteristics of solid waste smuggling areas, explored diverse return modes, and consolidated source control responsibilities.

Chinese customs strengthens on-site supervision and solid waste identification capabilities, focusing on precise prevention and control of sensitive goods; Technology empowers and upgrades the 'smart customs', relying on intelligent map review and solid waste identification algorithms to improve inspection and seizure efficiency. The number of domestic solid waste criminal smuggling cases has decreased from 699 in 2019-2021 to 261 in 2022-2024, and further reduced to 38 in 2025. The amount of waste involved has decreased from 2.435 million tons to 332400 tons, and then further reduced to 8300 tons, showing a sustained downward trend. In addition, China Customs deepens cross-border collaboration, relies on the World Customs Organization platform to promote intelligence sharing and case investigation, and builds a full chain governance system.