Fresh crackdown on UK’S ‘waste cowboys’

NEW measures to crack down on illegal tips and waste cowboys will be unveiled by the Government this week, the Sunday Express can reveal.

Loopholes that allow certain small-scale waste operations without a permit will be closed after they were exploited by criminals to mask illegal dumps and dodge landfill tax.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said: “We are determined to take the fight to those shameful criminals who seek to wreak havoc on our environment and economy.

“We are clear in our commitment to eliminate this illegal activity and these reforms will prevent dishonest operators from gaming the system and risking our health.we’re also giving regulators and local authorities more power to bring criminals to justice.”

Current rules allow certain low-risk, smallscale waste activities to be carried out under a registration scheme, exempt from the need to hold an environmental permit.

In November 2020 firefighters tackled a blaze for a week at a site in Bradford that held an exemption allowing the storage of tyres. The exemption was abused and 600,000 tyres were on the site – it would now need a full environmental permit.

An Environment Agency spokesman said: “Criminals have used the cover of exemptions to carry out illegal waste activities such as stockpiling large amounts of undocumented or unsuitable waste and evading landfill tax.these abuses are estimated to cost England’s economy £87.2million a year.”

An Environmental Improvement Plan, which seeks to eliminate waste crime by 2043, proposes to remove three of the 10 waste exemptions covering depolluted endof-life vehicle parts, the treatment of tyres, and the recovery of scrap metal. Conditions for the other seven will be tightened.

Steve Molyneux, EA strategic lead on waste regulation, said: “We are determined to make life harder for criminals by disrupting and stopping illegal activity through better regulation and tough enforcement action.

“These sites are a risk to the environment and people’s safety, and undercut legitimate business. We will keep working with the Government and the waste industry to drive further action on waste crime.”

‘We are determined to make life harder for these criminals’