With the rapid growth of the industry in recent years, illegal operators and serious organised criminals have found ways to enter lucrative waste markets. Resource learns of a new campaign in Scotland that aims to stop such crimes

There are many ways to make a quick (unlawful) quid in waste – operating an illegal landfill site; hiring out skips without a license; flytipping; dismantling cars on the sly; exporting WEEE disguised as charitable donations. But ultimately, as they say, crime doesn’t pay, and a new campaign in Scotland is aiming to ensure waste criminals get their just desserts.

Crimestoppers, which got its start 23 years ago in the wake of the Broadwater Farm riot, is the UK’s only crime-fighting charity. It works by providing an anonymous number through which people can give information about crimes, without having to give an official statement or go to court. The charity has around 50 employees throughout the UK and relies on a network of volunteers to spread its message (and to fundraise to supplement government grants). In the past year alone, Crimestoppers received over 90,000 actionable calls, resulting in over 8,000 criminals being arrested and charged. And now, thanks to a partnership with the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), they’ve got Scotland’s waste criminals in their sights.

Campaign organiser Kate Jackson explains: “[SEPA] discovered that there are a number of illegal sites and illegal operators had come into the industry, simply because there’s a lot of money to be made. The Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, about 18 months ago, conducted an exercise and established that across Scotland there are about 400 serious organised crime groups – these are major criminals who perhaps get money from supposedly legitimate businesses, but it’s fired off into other things, whether that’s drugs or prostitution, human trafficking, anything like that – just basically anything that organised criminals do.

“It became apparent that some of the people involved in the illegal waste industry in Scotland were people who perhaps the police had an interest in... So, SEPA thought they had to further their own intelligence gathering... and came to Crimestoppers to organise a partnership, and we kicked off the campaign [in July].”

Jackson describes the campaign as ‘awareness raising’ and explains the reasons why everyone needs to be aware of the issues: “Waste crime is particularly harmful to the environment. It costs the taxpayer millions of pounds every year to investigate and clean up, and waste – especially hazardous waste – can potentially harm both the environment and human health if not stored and disposed of correctly. Fluids from old car parts can leak into drains and water courses causing pollution and damaging farm and domestic animals and wildlife, while materials such as plastics and tyres are also a fire risk, giving off toxic fumes when set alight.”

The campaign, which started in mid-July, is set for an initial six-week burst of publicity, after which efforts will be targeted at specific geographical areas where SEPA deems it necessary to gather more information or act on the anonymous tip-offs they’re hoping will come rolling in.

Crimestoppers has issued flyers to both the general public – alerting people to the dangers of illegal waste sites and asking them to keep their eyes open – and also to licensed waste businesses, pointing out that illegal activities are harmful to people’s legitimate livelihoods. Jackson elaborates: “Some people in the sector might have a clue about things that are going on, but might be frightened to flag things up, especially if major criminals are involved.”

Asked if this sort of campaign could spread beyond Scotland, Jackson replies: “I’d quite honestly be surprised if it wasn’t taken up elsewhere because clearly it’s not just a problem for Scotland.” And indeed, shortly after speaking to Jackson, we learn that the Environment Agency in England and Wales has also teamed up with Crimestoppers, and is particularly interested in receiving information about waste crimes like large-scale dumping of waste and illegal tyre exportation. Waste criminals throughout the UK, take note.