Waste cheats make money from their crimes, pollute our environment and so those businesses and individuals who think they can cut corners best watch out – we won't tolerate it.
Baroness Young, Environment Agency
The Spotlight report on business' environmental performance which was launched today (September 4, 2007) looked at 11 industrial sectors, from chemicals and construction to metals and minerals.
The Agency's statistics revealed that 42 fines of £5,000 or more were dished out to waste management operators – a total of £778,077. Metal recycler Van Dalen UK's fine of £100,000 for “illegal waste activity” was the highest (see letsrecycle.com story).
Other poor performers included the water industry which had 10 prosecutions and cumulative fines of £623,075, followed by the construction industry which was hit with 20 fines at a total cost of £242,000.
Barbara Young, chief executive of the Environment Agency, welcomed the increases in fines handed out by courts in 2006 but added: “Penalties for environmental crime still aren't harsh enough. Some fines can be as low as a thousandth of a per cent of a company's worth and despite the higher penalties, the average fine was still only £11,800.”
Speaking today at the report's launch in London's Millbank Tower, Baroness Young compared the average fine dished out for environmental offences to the average for the Office of Fair Trading, which is around £4.6 million.
Powers
The chief executive also called for extra powers for the Agency, as recommended by the government's Macrory Review. This would allow it to “directly impose monetary penalties and other more flexible penalties to help support legitimate businesses that comply with environmental laws by tackling competitors that undercut them by avoiding the law and damage our environment.”
The statistics also revealed that the waste industry had 769 serious regulatory breaches of permit conditions, which was 27% lower then in 2005. The water industry, the next worst performer, had 166.
There were also 124 incidents of serious pollution- the lowest number on record for the waste industry. Only the water industry, which had 129, had more.
Pledge
The Environment Agency has pledged to “spend less time checking well-managed sites” after it emerged that the 769 serious regulatory breaches were caused by “just 185 businesses”. The figures also showed that a third of serious pollution incidents were caused by unlicensed activity and a third of companies were prosecuted for illegal waste activities.
Baroness Young said: “Waste cheats make money from their crimes, pollute our environment and so those businesses and individuals who think they can cut corners best watch out – we won't tolerate it.
“We are not interested in hassling businesses and operators that run a good ship as it's a waste of our time and theirs,” she added.
Construction
According to the report, the total waste generated from the 11 industry sectors in 2006 was the same as in 2005, and 42% more than in 2000. Construction and demolition firms produced 91 million tonnes each year-five times more than that produced by all the regulated sectors.
Construction firms pay £200 million in Landfill Tax every year and Baroness Young said it was “staggering” to hear that 13 million tonnes of raw materials delivered to sites are unused.
Paul Leinster, the Agency's operations director, said rather than focusing on sub-contractors who had less control over the ordering of products, the “duty-of-care must be put further up the chain of command to those who are commissioning”.
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