Recycle firms face fraud probe

PLASTICS recycling firms are facing a fraud probe amid claims of a multi-million-pound scam.

The Environment Agency is investigating allegations organised criminals have infiltrated UK recycling firms and are falsifying tonnage numbers in order to pocket more cash.

Officials will look at whether exporters claimed for tens of millions of tons of plastic waste that did not exist.

Exporters rake in millions of pounds every year by charging shops and factories a tonnage rate for waste, in return for plastic waste recovery notes.

These papers, currently £60 per ton, are used by retailers to prove to the Government they are recycling. But information obtained by The Guardian shows more plastic exported by firms than in the figures collected by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

The data reveals British export firms claim to have shipped abroad 35,135 tons more plastic than HMRC’s figures this year.