Waste crime damages and destroys. I’ve seen the effects up and down the country. If you’ve ever lived near an illegal waste site, I don’t need to remind you how horrendous an experience it is. They affect people’s health, wellbeing …
It’s getting to the time of year when we think about having the ‘Big Spring Clean’. The box room, shed, and garage are all earmarked for a deep cleanse, getting rid of those old kid’s toys, ill-advised sofa, and a …
It’s been 2 years since we made our lidar (light detection and ranging) data available to the public, for free, as open data – and the interest in it has been incredible. In 2016/17, over 500,000 lidar downloads were …
Waste is an issue for all of us. We all create it and that means we are all responsible for what happens to it. Waste needs to be dealt with in the safest way possible. Even as householders, we have …
For the thousands of waste sites we regulate, we set out clear permit conditions to ensure that business operators take the appropriate steps to run sites safely. Most businesses manage their waste responsibly and within the regulations, but where they …
Our work collecting and evaluating information about serious and organised environmental crime is vital for stopping waste crime. We use reports about suspected illegal activity from industry and the public to build intelligence so we that can target our work and …
There are two ways of legally running a waste business – with an environmental permit or with an exemption from having one. Unfortunately, some people choose to abuse the system, causing serious damage to the natural environment. It’s our job …
HMRC’s work with the Environment Agency Guest blog by Judith Kelly, OBE, HMRC’s Deputy Director of Environmental Tax Policy. Some operators are acting outside of the law by describing the waste they deal with incorrectly to pay a different rate …
Reducing waste crime and poorly operated waste management sites are high on our list of priorities at the Environment Agency. In the March Budget, the government announced a welcome additional £4.2 million of funding from the community landfill tax scheme to support our …
Everyone is guilty of hoarding things from time to time but some waste operators can take things too far. It is one thing to hoard old photographs or a couple of coats, but it’s not often that this has an …