The Environment Agency (EA) dispatched enforcement teams to 21 sites across the Thames Valley on Wednesday (16 November) as part of its effort to put a stop to waste crime in the area.

EA enforcement officers arrived unannounced to the 21 sites suspected of operating illegal waste disposal activities without the required environmental permits. Six sites were found to be contravening waste disposal legislation, while other sites were found to have stopped their illegal practices following taking previous EA advice on board.

Illegal waste disposal can be a lucrative crime and the illegal stockpiling, burning and burying of waste instead of paying for proper disposal undercuts the work of legitimate waste businesses, making it harder for them to operate.

Commenting on the day of action Helen Page, Enforcement Team Leader at the EA, said: “We take waste crime very seriously. Visits on a day of action is just one of the ways we are tackling illegal waste sites. We continually use reports from industry and the public to build intelligence and target our work at those involved in organised environmental crime and where their activities pose the greatest risk to the environment.

“We are really pleased with what we have achieved today. The information we have gathered will be used in our ongoing work to close more sites down and protect local communities.

Everyone can do their bit to reduce waste crime by making sure that any waste for disposal is collected by a licensed waste carrier and taken to a properly permitted, legitimate waste site. Ultimately, we want to make sure the right waste goes to the right place.”

Environment Agency crackdown

This day of action follows an EA crackdown on waste crime throughout 2016, which has seen EA conduct regional days of action in the South East in January, and in Lincolnshire in September.

Waste crime puts huge strain on the environment and local authorities (LA), with £69 million being spent by LAs in 2014/15 cleaning up illegally disposed waste and dealing with over 962,000 recorded incidents of flytipping.

Speaking in The Guardian in October of this year, EA Chief Executive Sir James Bevan likened waste crime to the illegal narcotics trade in the 1980s, saying: “It feels like drugs felt in the 1980s… The system hadn’t quite woken up to the enormity of what was going on and was racing to catch up… We are clear now about the damage waste crime does to communities and to the economy.

“The strategy is to work with the good guys and really nail the bad guys. We are both finding more [illegal sites] and nailing more. As the statistics show, we haven’t cracked it yet and it will be a long grind, but we are making progress.”

In addition to the EA’s crackdown, the Environmental Services Association has been running the ‘right Waste, right Place’ campaign, which seeks to spread awareness of business’s responsibilities vis-à-vis safe and proper waste disposal according to the Duty of Care. While 97 per cent of small and medium sized businesses believe that they are complying with legal regulations, almost 50 per cent are in fact failing to do so.

More information about the ‘right Waste, right Place’ campaign are available at the campaign’s website.