Unofficial trade waste bags cost Westminster £1 million in lost revenue last year. Their normal price of 84p each covers the waste disposal cost. But illicit gangs have been approaching businessmen with unauthorised bags at cut price.
At first, the council thought the sacks had been produced by counterfeiters. But now it believes the sacks are probably old designs or the products of faulty print runs.
Rob Campbell, head of environmental performance at Westminster council said: “We have a problem with stolen bags or old stock being circulated at a cheaper rate… that’s illegal and shouldn’t happen, but finding out where they’re coming from is very difficult.”
Several shades and thickness of grey bag have appeared on the streets in recent months. Some have printing errors and others appear to carry old designs. But their similarity to official bags and the fact no records were kept of former bag designs has made ‘fakes’ harder to identify. In some cases, bags bearing misprints have been proved to be genuine.
Procedures at the bags’ printers and at sites where bags are ordered and collected have now been tightened and audit balances are being closely examined. In addition, records of old bag designs will now be kept.
But Mr Campbell stressed that there was no proof council or printer staff were to blame. “We have yet to find anything to indicate that our staff are responsible,” he said.
It is a criminal offence for a business to use fake trade waste bags, with a penalty fine of £2,500. Westminster council blames the bag fraud for the fact it made only £12 million from commercial bags sales in 2002-03 rather than the expected £13 million. And it has warned the loss may be covered by a rise in bag prices next year.
Banks
Westminster was also blighted recently by a series of recycling bank thefts
(see letsrecycle.com story).
Recycling manager Phil Robson confirmed that there have been no more thefts since May, but neither had any suspects been identified.
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