Environment Agency tracks down illegal waste operators.
Almost exactly 12 months after it was predicted in an exclusive DemolitionNews video, illegal waste operators are being tracked down and forced out of business as part of a crackdown on their criminal trade.
A Environment Agency taskforce shut down a record 1,279 sites in the last financial year, almost double the previous 12 months, where traders had dumped or buried waste, or sorted it ready for illegal export without the necessary permits.
The cost of the crime is put at £1bn, according to the organisation’s environment and business manager Bob Mead.
“The people who operate illegally probably don’t pay taxes, they certainly aren’t paying their proper landfill tax, so there are a variety of income sources which government isn’t getting,” he said.
“And there is the money lost to legitimate industry that would be paying the appropriate taxes.”
Read more here, or view the video below:
