Waste crime involves the illegal management, transport, and disposal of waste. There are over 1,175 known illegal waste sites in England and Wales, dealing primarily with construction waste, mixed household waste, and end-of-life vehicles. Illegal waste export and large-scale dumping also pose problems. Waste crime damages the environment, human health, and legitimate businesses. While efforts have been made to close illegal sites and prosecute offenders, the number of illegal sites has not decreased significantly. Further research is needed to understand the root causes of waste crimes and their full impacts.

1. The Waste Crime Problem
Andre Akiyode

2. What is waste crime?
• The deliberate breaking of the law by people
who don’t manage, transport and dispose of
waste correctly.
• Waste crime is relatively new and is:
• nasty for the environment;
• for the people affected; and
• for legitimate business that pay for waste
permits and tipping fees.

3. Extent of waste crime
The EA focuses on tackling serious waste crimes.
• Priority waste crime types include;
• Illegal waste sites, e.g. dealing with used
vehicles, scrap metal, etc;
• Illegal export of waste, e.g. tyres, waste electrical
equipment and black bag waste containing mixed
household waste such as paper, plastics, etc;
• Large scale illegal dumping, e.g. more than two
large skips worth of waste.
Figure 1 below shows the distribution of known illegal waste
sites, March 2012 (EA source)

4. Extent of waste crime

5. Extent of waste crime
• Includes storage, treatment & disposal of waste.
• 1175 illegal waste sites at the end of March
2012;
• 32% for construction and demolition waste
• 23% for mixed household or commercial waste
• 22% for end-of-life vehicles and vehicle parts
Figures 2 and 3 below: Illegal waste sites showing key
waste type and activity, March 2012 (EA source)

6. Extent of waste crime

7. Extent of waste crime

8. Illegal export of waste
• Waste shipped over the world is increasing due
to:
• Economic growth and
• Globalisation
• Has generated a lucrative market in waste
export.
• In developing industrial countries in Asia and
Africa, like China and India waste is considered
as a valuable source of raw material.
• Within the EU, as many as 15% of all transport
movements involve waste.

9. Illegal export of waste
• There is growing evidence of illegal transfrontier
movements of waste;
• In 2011, 750 tonnes of contaminated waste was
repatriated from Brazil back to the UK.
• The EU seaport project revealed 197 illegal waste
shipments and 286 other infractions out of a total of
660 shipments.
• The busy European ports seem to be hub ports for
waste movement within the EU and beyond.

10. Illegal dumping of waste
• The EA deals with large, serious and organised
incidents;
• Sometimes involves hazardous waste with
greater potential to:
• damage the environment and
• harm people
• Example is the 2009 Midlands and North of
England case. The EA found several trailers
containing hazardous waste dumped across the
Midlands and North of England.

11. Risk of waste crime
• Not dealing with waste crime can:
• cause serious damage to the environment;
• pose risk to human health, e.g. illegal burming
produces toxic fumes;
• create problems for local communities, such as
noise and nuisance for those living nearby and
declining property prices;
• be bad for businesses, as illegal operators
undercut legitimate waste companies

12. Risk of waste crime
• They pose risks to people and the environment;
• Tend to cluster around towns and cities as well as key
motorway links.
• The worst of them pollute homes and schools with
smoke from illegally burned materials;
• more than 300 of the sites were within 50m of
schools, homes or sensitive environmental sites;
• the agency prosecuted a Leicestershire company for
illegally burning waste and affecting local air quality.
Nearby residents' homes were affected by smoke.

13. Cost to tackle waste crime
• Big and growing business with 1,175 illegal sites
in England and Wales as of march 2012.
• Estimated cost of clearance of fly-tipping to Local
Authorities revealed at £37.4 million.
• Investigation, surveillance and prosecution takes
time and cost a lot:
• EA devotes £17 million of public money a year to
tackle;
• EA investing a further £4.9 million over the next
year and half on a task force to target illegally
operating waste sites.

14. Current trend
• Overall number of illegals sites is barely falling;
• New sites opening almost as fast as they’re
closed down (fig 3 below);
• Waste sites remain significant and constantly
evolving problem;
• According to EA, for every eight permitted sites,
there is one illegal one;
• Figure 3: Trends in the number of illegal waste sites, April 2009-
March 2012 (EA source)

15. Current trend

16. Actions taken
During 2011-2012 the EA:
• closed 759 illegal waste sites - 89 of these were brought
within regulation and the rest closed;
• dealt with 262 incidents of serious illegal dumping - 24 per
cent of which involved construction and demolition waste;
• set up our illegal waste site taskforce to help close more sites
more quickly and understand why they operate illegally;
• worked with a range of partners to develop better intelligence
and stop more waste crime;
• took 335 prosecutions for illegal waste activity – 15 of which
were for illegal waste exports (during calendar year 2011).

17. Suggested solution
• Better mutual assistance and collective action from
the EA and partners, e.g. police, customs, etc;
• Actions should range from traditional enforcement
activities such as waste audits to more sophisticated
technical and scientific resources- special
surveillance, close circuit TT (CCTV);
• Capabilities required to handle such illegal waste
activities require capacities of resources-both
personnel and other support;
• ensure a timely and adequate response to all such
activities.

18. Current trend
• Significant numbers of sites are shut down each year
but there has only been slight downward trend in
total number of illegal waste sites (see fig 3).
• Since the launch of the EA waste crime task force in
December 2011, total number of illegal waste sites
identified has almost doubled and expected to rise;
• According to DEFRA, report of fly-tipping incidents in
2011/12 dropped by 9% compared to previous year.
• Almost two thirds of this was household waste, &
• 43% occurred on the motorway according to report.

19. Likely research areas
• It is not enough to go after these sites. Research is needed
to understand and determine:
• the root causes of waste crimes to understand more
about offender behavior and it’s impact;*
• the way in which different types of waste move from the
point of production to the point of disposal, recycling or
recovery, using a waste stream approach ;**
• the impacts of waste crime on legitimate
business, communities and the environment. ***
• the value and scale of illegal waste exports . Find out
how much waste leaves England and Wales illegally.****