Enforcement and landowner action can tackle waste crime

Organised criminal gangs operating across England are targeting privately owned property and land, particularly in rural locations, to dump rubbish that has been collected illegally. All legal businesses involved in waste transportation, buying or selling or carriers, brokers and dealers arranging waste activities, must register with the Environment Agency.

Waste crime has severe financial and legal impacts for landowners who are duped by a rogue operator or find illegally dumped waste on their land. The environmental impacts can be long-lasting as well, rendering that land unusable for farming – sometimes for years.

The Environment Agency regulates the waste sector in England and deals with large-scale crime including illegal dumping, waste exports and other types of waste crime such as illegal waste sites, misdescribing waste, exemption abuse and producer responsibility fraud.

It also concerns law and order, as waste criminals are often involved in other types of offence relating to drugs, firearms and human trafficking. They use violence and intimidation and make huge profits by breaking the law and not paying tax.

But the true scale of waste crime isn't yet fully understood. The Environment Agency started the National Waste Crime Survey in 2020 and now publishes it biannually. The aim is to gather data to enable us to better quantify the scale of such crime and identify trends and emerging issues.

Results from our 2021 and 2023 surveys show that 18% of waste in England – equating to around 34m tonnes of waste every year, enough to fill 4m skips – may be handled illegally at some point in the supply chain, suggesting levels of offending in the sector are static.

By undercutting legitimate operations, such crime affects the waste management sector. Offenders evade many business costs, thus boosting their own illegal profits. Those in the waste management sector who responded to our survey estimate that one in four of their competitors misdescribe waste. Stating that it is not hazardous, for instance, allows companies to pay a lower rate of landfill tax.

Of the landowners and farmers who took part in our 2023 survey, 86% reported being affected by small-scale fly-tipping, which is dealt with by local authorities. However, 20% said they were affected by large-scale fly-tipping – that is more than a tipper load – which we at the Environment Agency handle.

The latest survey was sent in February, and findings will be published this summer.

Criminals know there is money to be made in the waste sector, and the risk of punishment is low compared to other types of crime. The courts determine the punishments for the cases we bring before them, and we try to assist them in coming to the right sentence.

The Environmental offences: Definitive guideline, published in 2014, sets out priority waste offences such as unauthorised or harmful deposits, treatment or disposal of waste and illegal discharges to air, land and water. We demonstrate the impact and harm from the offences to ensure the sentences are appropriate. However, it is difficult to show harm from a waste offence as it is often localised and easier to remediate, which may lead to a lesser sentence.

Although we sometimes feel the sentences are not severe enough, this is not a matter for us.

Respondents to our survey suggest that waste crime is being prompted by the increased cost of living, as businesses and householders have an incentive for their waste to be taken away by criminals for a lower price, even though that drives up operational costs for legitimate waste businesses. COVID-19 was also thought to have increased criminal activity as lockdowns made it harder for the Environment Agency and law enforcement agencies to operate.

Despite these challenges, by the end of March last year we had successfully shut down 462 illegal waste sites, bringing the total number in operation to 344, the lowest on record.

It's not just about securing empty land and premises – it's also about taking the following preventative measures before renting out land and property to new tenants.

First, the landowner should carry out rigorous checks.

• They must make sure they see adequate identification documents, such as bank details, driving licence or a waste carriers registration where relevant.
• They should use freely available information such as the Companies House register to ensure the waste management company is a legitimate organisation.
• If renting to a new company, the landowner should ensure they meet and deal with the director in the first instance.
• They should also investigate the status of the new company's finances to ensure they are strong.
• The company's website and contact details should match those that have been supplied.
• The landowner should ensure they know what business the company intends to carry out on the premises.
• If it is a waste business, the operator must have the right environmental permits from the Environment Agency, so the landowner should ask to see these. If they themselves plan to carry out any waste activities, they also need to have the right environmental permits.
• Planning permission will also be required from the local authority.
• If the company is moving waste, it needs waste carriers' registration, which can be checked on our public register.
• The landowner should be cautious if prospective new tenants arrive on foot. This may be because they don't want you to see their vehicle, which is traceable.
• Details of any witness to the lease agreements should be checked, to ensure they are plausible and traceable.
• The landowner should secure a downpayment from a traceable bank account.

Once tenants are in place, the landowner should then regularly check that the tenants are operating properly. Any of the following could indicate they are not operating the business they said:

• more lorry movements that would be expected for their business
• activities on site at strange hours of the day and night
• evidence of unusual odours or pests
• complaints from adjacent tenants about their new neighbours.

If the landowner does suspect illegal activity, they should report it. Should they discover anyone dumping waste on their land or property, they should not approach because they may be dangerous but call the police on 999.

If a landowner is approached to store waste for someone else, or discovers that waste has been dumped in their property or on their land, they should report it to the Environment Agency's 24-hour incident hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016 and the Environmental Protection Act 1990 are clear: if waste is dumped on privately owned land, the owner of the land or property has to clean it up at their own expense. We have had cases where those affected faced costs in the region of £200,000 to clear illegally dumped waste from their premises.

Protecting land is no longer just about installing gates and preventing access, because the dumping of waste is becoming more organised and planned. We have seen an increase in the seriousness of offending in the waste sector with criminality becoming more complex and varied.

If landowners are renting out spaces, including warehouses, it is not just the cost of waste removal that needs to be considered. In 2017, complaints about flies in a warehouse in Margate led to the discovery of a cavern of illegally stored waste that subsequently caught fire and burned for 25 days, gutting the building. The Environment Agency prosecuted the offenders, resulting in suspended prison sentences totalling 20 months between the pair.

While landowners are not often involved in committing the offences, they do have a responsibility to ensure that anyone they allow to use their land is abiding by the law, and it is an offence to knowingly permit illegal waste activities.

In November, a landowner was prosecuted for allowing unpermitted waste activities on their land to continue after they had been warned. Prosecuting for the Environment Agency, solicitor Sarah Dunne told the court that although the landowner had not carried out any of the waste activities, they had provided the land, continued to accept rent from the tenant and turned a blind eye to the offending.

The Environment Agency is taking action against criminals by carrying out site inspections and prosecuting guilty parties to the full extent of the law. But it's essential that everyone affected works together to tackle this issue, which is why we are running an awareness campaign to educate, promote behaviour change and to stop waste criminals for good.

We also work in partnership with environmental regulators, such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, law enforcement agencies and others to close the net on waste criminals, who are often committing other types of crime, making them a target for a range of agencies. By working together, we can stop them faster by using whichever of our own or our partners' enforcement powers are most effective.

We work with police rural crime teams to deal with waste crimes in locations that affect landowners and rural communities. Crime prevention, awareness and education are all important in our efforts to stop waste crime; police rural crime teams who specialise in break-ins in rural areas, machinery theft from farms, and wildlife crimes are well placed to help us through their engagement with farmers, landowners and countryside communities.

We are also part of the National Fly-Tipping Prevention Group, which seeks to identify good practice in preventing and tackling fly-tipping and to advise the government on problems and potential solutions on fly-tipped waste.

Future changes to regulations including digital waste tracking and tighter controls on waste carriers and brokers and waste exemptions registration will also mean criminals will find it harder to deal illegally in waste.

Entry points into waste management will become subject to tighter scrutiny and technical competency will need to be demonstrated to join the sector. We will replace existing registrations with a standard rules environmental permit or a registered exemption, which will include increased identification checks at application stage.

Permit holders will be periodically required to declare they are still meeting the conditions of their permit and that their business details and required technical competence is up to date.

Although waste crime is not stopping any time soon, we do now know more about the scale and extent of it. The Environment Agency will continue to strive to prevent, disrupt, stop and shut down waste criminals. We will continue to raise awareness and educate people about waste crime, sharing details of how people can help.