This new report commissioned by the Environmental Services Association shows that the cost of waste crime in England to the legitimate waste industry and the taxpayer increased to £924m in 2018/19.
The report, Counting the Cost of UK Waste Crime, shows that the total cost of waste crime in England has increased by 53% from £604 million in 2015.
The two most costly forms of waste crime to England’s economy are fly-tipping, which now exceeds £392 million (rising from £209 million in 2015) and the operation of illegal waste sites, which account for an estimated £236 million (up £98 million since 2015).
The report makes a series of recommendations to address the issue of waste crime:
- Tighten the entry requirements for waste carriers, brokers and dealers to prevent criminals from accessing the sector;
- Bolster duty of care enforcement to stop criminals from being able to access, store or process waste illegally;
- Increase Environment Agency and Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) funding in the longer term – the Environment Agency’s current waste crime enforcement budget is just 3% of the total cost of dealing with consequences of waste crime
- Introduce new waste crime reporting to better record and track the scale and impact of waste crime across the country.
Eunomia completed two previous reports on waste crime: Waste Crime: Britain’s Dirty Secret in 2014 that assessed the economic impact of waste crime on the UK as a whole; and Rethinking Waste Crime in 2017, which looked at the economic impact of waste crime in England and recommended a package of changes to modernise the country’s waste management system
