The report, commissioned by the Environmental Services Association Education Trust (ESAET) questions the logic of reducing funding to tackle waste crime when it has found that for every £1 spent on enforcement, it puts at least £3.20 back into government coffers. 

“We need to stop thinking about ‘waste crime’ as somehow being less important than other crimes,” said Barry Dennis, an ESAET Trustee “Fly-tipping, rogue waste operations and tax evasion via the misclassification of waste are costing the taxpayer millions of pounds a year and are funding organised crime.”

To tackle the problem, the ESAET and report authors Eunomia recommended that waste crime enforcement budgets be bolstered. 

According to the ESAET, this report is the first time that the total cost of waste crime has been calculated. The £808m figure is said to be at the top of a range calculated by collating the costs of illegal waste sites, tax evasion by waste operators (who deliberately misclassify waste to avoid higher rates of landfill tax) and from the clean-up costs of fly-tipping.  

“While waste crime can have serious environmental impacts, the motive is economic. It offers high rewards and relatively low risk of substantial penalty. It takes work away from legitimate, permitted waste operators, who therefore lose income. However, the profits come largely at the expense of the taxpayer,” says the report.

In producing the report, Eunomia said it found several industry figures expressing concerns about the growth of a “culture of criminality” appearing in the waste sector. Fears are rising that the industry is an easy target for organised criminal gangs owing to the potential for huge profits and the inadequate deterrent provided by ineffective regulation and lenient sentencing.  

ESAET will be sending a copy of the report to the government and said it will be seeking discussions with the waste and resource management industry representatives.