Agency takes joint-working approach on waste crime

Joint working with other enforcement agencies and organisations such as port authorities will have an increasingly major part to play in the Environment Agencys efforts to crackdown on waste crime.

That is the message from the Agencys head of waste and illegals, Mat Crocker, who told letsrecycle.com that working with other enforcement bodies such as the police to build up a full picture of criminal activity was a key part of the regulators intelligence-based approach to tackling waste crime.

Mr Crocker, who took charge of the Agencys work on waste in March 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), also revealed the EA currently has 20 major investigations on waste ongoing.

And, while he did not reveal specific details of these investigations, he did confirm that some of them related to WEEE an area he confirmed would continue to be a priority as the Agency tries to reduce the amount of waste electrical equipment illegally exported to the developing world.

Intelligence

Outlining the basis of the Agencys current approach to tackling waste crime, Mr Crocker highlighted the importance of its national intelligence operation, where information is gathered from a wide range of sources, analysed and then officers identify sites and individuals involved.

We have a whole range of intelligence, he said. Some might be from waste companies saying someone is undercutting them and they have questions about their practices, an officer might see something that doesnt make sense, some from sharing data with other enforcement agencies. The same names are known across bodies.

In particular, he explained the emphasis was on working in a joined up way with other regulators, nationally and internationally and working with intelligence.

Export

Mr Crocker said this was particularly the case when dealing with waste exports. He said: Our hit rate for opening containers and finding waste thats being illegally exported is 97%. Thats because were taking an intelligence-based approach.

Were working with the port authorities and shipping companies, saying we want to come down and look at these containers.

And, he highlighted WEEE exports as a particularly important area, explaining: This is where working in conjunction with other bodies is important pretty much all WEEE being exported has gone through local authority sites so by tracking it we can start to identify where the material is leaked out of the system.

Our information is that some people are making a lot of money from this.

Mr Crocker also noted the significance of addressing construction and demolition waste, due to the large amount of material generated and the way it was handled, while noting that tyres were also a continuing priority as well.

Budgets

Mr Crocker said it was particularly important to work with other bodies in light of current limits on the Agencys resources. Last Octobers Spending Review saw reports of major budget and job cuts at the Environment Agency (see letsrecycle.com story).

But, he insisted, money is not an issue. The Environment Agency is still an organisation spending 1 billion a year, he asserted. We still have the legislation and powers we always did. Money is not an issue stopping us doing this, but we need to focus on the right issues to do this.

Resources are changing, its not unlimited but that means we can deal with other people. Its about asking wheres the first point in the armour?