Landowners leasing out their property to another person or company should be vigilant of it being used for illegal waste operations, or risk facing significant clean-up bills, the Environment Agency (EA) has warned.

Fly-tipping or illegal waste left on private land is the responsibility of the landowner and, under current laws, removal must be paid for by the owner, even if they are not responsible for the waste or complicit in the illegal activity.

Unfortunate impact on landowners

Earlier this year, the EA prosecuted Gloucestershire-resident Alfred Booy for operating an illegal waste site on leased land. Following multiple failed attempts to get him to clear the site, a prosecution was brought, resulting in an 18-month custodial sentence.

The landowner is now required to deal with the waste left on the site.

EA Officer Martin Quine, commented this morning (6 August): “We take waste crime very seriously as it can damage the environment, impact local communities and undercut legitimate businesses.

“Unfortunately, despite our efforts to get the company responsible to clean up the site in this case, the landowner has been left with the clean up bill.

“There are steps landowners can take to avoid this happening, such as carrying out regular inspections and checking that the site users have the correct authorisations in place to carry out the activities they are using the site for.

“Landowners are also encouraged to report any suspicious waste activity to us early on.”

Government cracking down on waste crime

The EA has been increasingly raising awareness of how waste crime can put the general public at risk of prosecution, and last week highlighted that all businesses, residents and producers of waste are legally obligated to check that any party disposing of their waste is a registered waste carrier and properly licensed.

If fly-tipped waste is traced back to a particular household, residents could face fines of up to £5000.

The EA has also recently published guidance on the signs of illegal waste sites, including:

• waste business activity out of hours;
• increases in the number of lorries entering a site;
• waste going into a site but not coming out;
• smoke caused from constant burning; and
• water pollution

Waste crime diverts up to £1 billion each year from legitimate business and public budgets, the agency says, in addition to its harm to communities and the environment.

The Welsh Government and the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) are also currently working on further enhancing the EA and Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) enforcement powers when it comes to waste crime.

Read how the Environment Agency works to stop waste crime.