Plans for new enforcement powers are to be given to the Environment Agency to crack down on illegal waste operators.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) has now gone before Parliament, which would allow public authorities including the Environment Agency to get access to important communications information, including telephone bills, to help catch environmental criminals.
Martin Brocklehurst, head of waste strategy at the Environment Agency, said: “Environmental offences like fly-tipping are being committed by organised criminal gangs, as it is seen as a high profit activity. We've seen waste disposal services advertised by unregistered operators using telephone number-only press advertisements offering rates that would not be commercially viable. Much of this is then fly-tipped avoiding the legitimate cost of safe disposal, causing pollution and blight.
He added: “This is not about listening to private telephone conversations, it's about having access to telephone information such as who subscribes to a telephone number that can help us catch these criminals.”
Fly-tipping accounted for 14% serious pollution incidents in 2002, the Agency said.
Wrexham gives support to proposed EfW plant
The people of Wrexham have given their support to HLC Waste's plans for an energy-from-waste recovery plant.
Wrexham borough county council conducted a survey of residents regarding the future of waste management in the region. Of the 9,000 residents who responded, 69% supported the council's strategy to produce energy through the proposed thermal treatment process after recycling and composting and before any rubbish is sent to landfill, with 14% disagreeing with the proposal.
Leader of Wrexham council, Councillor Shan Wilkinson said: “It is good news that so many of the people who responded agreed that burning the waste that is left over after recycling to produce energy is acceptable. It is clear that people understand that there are no easy solutions to the problem of disposing of our waste.”
HLC is currently looking for a new site for the 20m plant, which will use technology from Compact Power (see letsrecycle.com story).
Belgians visit London community recyclers
A group of recyclers from Belgium visited London last week to gain insight into the community recycling sector there.
The two-day tour, organised by London Community Recycling's Sharing Resources programme, included visits to ECT Recycling, CREATE, Restore, the Free Form Arts Trust, Green-Works, Respond and the Shaftesbury Resource Centre.
Ben Metz, London CRN director, said: “The aim of this guided tour was to offer a great opportunity to Belgian community recyclers to learn from successful community recyclers in the UK, while opening our frontiers to good practice in other European countries.”
Claudine Piggott, communications manager at Green-Works added: “It is by sharing good practice and exchanging ideas that real progress can be made.”
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