By James Murray, Source: BusinessGreen

Businesses are being urged to carry out proper due diligence on their waste contractors, after a new report from the Environment Agency revealed the number of illegal waste sites detected by the watchdog has almost doubled to 1,175.

The Agency stressed the increase in the number of sites being detected was primarily the result of the launch last year of a new dedicated £5m Illegal Waste Sites Taskforce, which has closed more than 750 large-scale illegal waste sites and successfully prosecuted 335 individuals and companies for waste-related offences last year.

However, Andrew Higham, head of the Environment Agency’s National Environmental Crime Team, warned that waste crimes remain a major environmental threat and as such the agency wants to see more businesses and local authorities support its efforts.

“Waste crime can cause pollution, pose risks to people’s health and undercut legitimate businesses,” he said. “We’ve stepped up the fight and we are increasingly seeing waste offenders being made to pay for their crimes.

“But we are not complacent and there is more to do particularly around cracking down on illegal waste sites. Our new taskforce will help us break this cycle. However, we can’t do it on our own. We need everyone to play their part in helping to tackle waste crime.”

A spokeswoman for the agency said the watchdog was calling on businesses to periodically check how their waste contractor is disposing of waste materials and report any suspicious behaviour.

“We want to hear of people offering waste services that are significantly under-cutting the market,” she said, adding that people could report suspected illegal activities anonymously through the Crimestoppers line. “The general rule is that if it seems too good to be true, it might well be.”

The new Annual Waste Crime Report reveals 16 people were handed custodial sentences for commiting waste crimes last year, while the total fines increased by nearly £800,000 to £1.7m.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman pledged that the recent crackdown on waste crimes would continue, describing illlegal waste sites as “a blight on our communities which I am determined to root out”.

“The new Illegal Waste Site Taskforce funded by Defra means these criminals have nowhere to hide and we will be relentless in tracking them down,” she said in a statement. “These criminals should know we are coming for them and they will feel the full force of the law.”

The Environment Agency spokeswoman said the new team was at the start of a two-year programme to close all the illegal sites that have been detected or bring them within regulations.

“The team has been very successful at taking an intelligence-led approach and bringing in people with experience from police forces and forensic skills to tackle these complex crimes,” she said. “The Environment Agency has learnt a lot from the specialist environmental crimes team set up in 2007 and we are now going to see this crackdown accelerate.”