The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee has opened an inquiry into waste crime with an evidence session from industry experts.
The inquiry is considering waste crime, with a focus on serious and organised waste crime, such as illegal waste sites and illegal dumping that pose a serious environmental risk.
Appearing before the peers were Dan Cooke, Director of Policy, Communications and External Affairs at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Sam Corp, Head of Regulation at the Environmental Services Association (ESA) and Donald Macphail, Chief Operating Officer for Treatment and Hazardous Waste, UK, at Veolia.
The industry stakeholders gave their perspectives on the scale, impacts and regulation of waste crime.
Speaking to the Committee, CIWM’s Dan Cooke warned the peers that waste crime is a ‘1 billion pound problem’ and is getting worse. He also warned about the significant scale of unknown waste crime.
“It is that one billion pound problem, a significant drag on the economy in terms of lost revenue, clean-up costs and detrimental impacts on local neighbourhoods and economies, and the scale is not decreasing,” Cooke said.
“This is also discouraging net zero and circular economy and greater recycling aspirations by legitimate operators, as well as leading to significant environmental and amenity damage.
“From illegal sites to landfill tax fraud and organised fly-tipping, this really is a serious issue and we’re really pleased that this inquiry is looking in detail about progress to address it.”
The House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s inquiry is seeking to understand the avenues for and prevalent forms of waste crime and their impacts.
It is also assessing the efficacy of current regulatory, monitoring and enforcement regimes and considering the government’s plans to address the problem.
The Committee is scheduled to hear from other industry stakeholders next week (10 September) as part of the ongoing inquiry.