Environment Agency (EA) officers, accompanied by South Yorkshire Police, apprehended the individuals last week as part of an investigation into fraudulent waste exporting claims.
After being interviewed, both suspects have been released on conditional bail, including a condition that restricts them from contact with each other.
Evidence from the investigation and arrests will support action going forward.
Commenting on the arrests, Lauren Pigg, Deputy Director for Waste Markets and Shipments at the EA, said: “We are calling time on fraudulent activity in the recycling sector, which harms law-abiding businesses and threatens our environment.
“Our teams are now thoroughly examining all the evidence gathered in these raids to help progress this investigation and deliver justice.”
‘Dramatic rise’ in PERN fraud
The EA launched a new Economic Crime Unit last year to carry out financial investigations in the waste sector last year, reporting seeing a “dramatic rise” in waste export fraud over the last three years.
In July 2025, three arrests were made in the North West of England, in connection with illegal recycling paperwork.
Packaging Export Recycling Notes (PERNs) aim to enforce recycling obligations, but criminals often falsely claim to have exported packaging waste that either never existed, was not UK sourced or had already been the subject of a claim.
Rogue operators exploit the PERN system by falsifying documents.
The EA has said that it’s found evidence of sophisticated and established money laundering networks set up to receive not only the proceeds of Packaging Export Recycling Note fraud but monies from benefit fraud, VAT fraud and acquisitive crime.
It added that waste export fraud results in waste being exported out of the UK – and often ending up dumped in locations overseas where it harms the environment.
Total waste crime costs the UK economy an estimated £1 billion a year.
Subscribe for free