The Agency is working as part of the European Union Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law (IMPEL), in the second phase of a waste shipment campaign called the Seaport Project.
Under international law, the Agency must be notified of all shipments of mixed municipal wastes out of the UK. Paper and plastics can be exported to certain countries without notification to the Agency, only if they are suitably separated.
A spokeswoman for the Agency told letsrecycle.com: “There is always potential for criminal abuse of regulations, including exports of waste such as mixed recyclables.”
Working on IMPEL's first Seaport Project, the Agency has already carried out inspections at Felixstowe, looking into the potential for illegal waste exports from the UK.
Potential
“This project is looking at the level of potential waste trafficking through European ports and the Agency is contributing to this by undertaking investigations at Felixstowe,” the spokeswoman explained.
The spokeswoman went on to say that the second Seaport Project will involve inspections at various ports across the UK from September, although the details concerning which ports are to be targeted have not been finalised. The action will form part of a wider campaign in which ports throughout Europe will be inspected by their local regulatory bodies.
The first IMPEL project on waste shipments was set up in 1992 and involved the harbours of Antwerp in Belgium, Hamburg in Germany, Riga in Latvia, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Gdansk in Poland as well as the UK's Felixstowe.
In the UK, the Environment Agency has carried out action earlier this year on what it considered to be illegal exports of waste plastics to India (see letsrecycle.com story). Last year the Agency issued revised guidance following a case in which Leeds city council was eventually cleared of illegally exporting municipal waste (see letsrecycle.com story).
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