environment
Say hello to the UK’s most successful growth industry: organised waste crime
Thanks to a sustained ideological assault on regulation, our country has been turned into a literal dump
TL;DR
- The UK has between 8,000 and 13,000 illegal waste sites, ranging from small dumps to massive accumulations of toxic materials.
- Deregulation and severe cuts to regulatory bodies have created a vacuum for organised waste crime.
- Criminals pocket significant profits by illegally dumping waste instead of using registered disposal sites.
- Waste crime is a gateway to other organised criminal activities like drug trafficking, gun running, and modern slavery.
- Examples at Bickershaw, near Wigan, the River Cherwell, Oxford, and Hoad's Wood, Kent, illustrate regulatory failures and escalating environmental damage.
- The cost of cleaning up illegal dumps is estimated to be billions of pounds, with potential contamination costs being even higher.
- The government's new 'waste crime action plan' is seen as insufficient to tackle the scale of the crisis.