Quango chiefs must pay nearly £1million to a private company to bring back 1,500 tonnes of waste illegally dumped in Poland by UK firms.
Plastic, textiles, aluminium and other rubbish were found at five sites between 2017-18. Polish officials now demand that this rubbish is properly recycled.
The Environment Agency is paying £983,000 to a private company to dispose of it – and the taxpayer will pick up the bill, the BBC reported.
The source of the waste has not been identified and no prosecutions have taken place.
This comes just as Jo Churchill, Environment Minister, outlines today’s plans to tackle waste crime.
The government will discuss new measures including enhanced background checks for businesses that trade or move waste. Additionally, the government will increase its regulatory power to deal with rogue traders.
Jo Churchill, the Environment Minister will discuss today’s plans for combating waste crime. This is after 1500 tonnes of illegally dumped waste in Poland was ordered by the UK
UK food packaging was amongst the trash at a Green-Tec Solutions leased site that is being used for recycling. This storage facility, which was near Lodz in Poland, was the location of a large fire on May 28 2018.
Pictured: More than 200 tonnes of illegal trash from Britain was found in Bogaczewo in Poland, in 2018.
Many waste crimes are handled anonymously by intermediaries. It will be harder for operators not registered to work in the sector.
All waste shipment will need to be digitally tracked, beginning at its production and ending when it is being recycled, disposed off, or reused.
In 2018-19, the Department for Environment found waste crime, including fly-tipping, illegal dumping and illegal exportation of waste abroad, cost the economy £924million. Over that time, local authorities were faced with nearly 11.3 million fly-tipping cases.
Churchill stated that waste criminals showed complete disregard for communities, environment, and taxpayers.
“We have dismantled these rogue operators through giving additional powers to the Environment Agency. Nearly 1,000 illegal waste sites are now being closed each year. Our new Joint Unit for Waste Crime, for instance, is disrupting criminal groups that illegally dump hundreds of tonnes of hazardous material across the country.
From 2017-18, the rubbish consisted of plastics, textiles and aluminum at five locations. Polish authorities now demand that the rubbish be properly recycled. (Pictured – Plastic waste dumped in Adana, Turkey. Investigators discovered plastic packaging from the UK, Germany and other global brands of food and beverages as well as supermarkets.
“Reforming the licensing system will curb abuse. New mandatory digital waste tracking (MDT) will improve transparency in this sector. It will also make it simpler for households to confirm that legal disposal of their waste has been done legally.
Two-year prison sentences can be handed down to anyone found exporting waste that is incorrectly classified. The Environment Agency stopped illegally exporting 12,690 tonnes worth of waste in 2018/19.
Greenpeace’s last-year report revealed that Poland was the third largest recipient of British plastic scrap, having received 38,000 tonnes. This is 7 percent of all the exports.
Turkey received 221,000 tonnes. Malaysia was second with 65,000 tonnes.