22-May-2006
- Businesses in Liverpool and Widnes are being
asked if they have a DIRTY SECRET as part of a
hard-hitting campaign to stamp out waste crime
in the region.
The Environment Agency, local
authorities, along with local police forces are
behind the zero-tolerance campaign "Make
Waste Your Business".
New figures show that, somewhere
in England, rubbish is illegally dumped every
35 seconds and costs local authorities and the
Environment Agency around £100 a minute
to clear.
The campaign focuses mainly
on areas of Liverpool and Widnes along the Mersey
estuary, which is made up of heavy urban, commercial
and industrial land including parts of extreme
areas of deprivation that are undergoing extensive
regeneration.
A high number of dumping black
spots occupy these area including Sandhills/ Brunswick
Place, land around Cains Brewery and Garston Industrial
Estate.
More than £70,000 funded
through Defra’s Business Resource Efficiency and
Waste (BREW) project will be used over the next
18 months to crack down on large-scale fly-tipping,
illegal waste sites and unregistered waste carriers
in the area.
To raise awareness of the problem
and prompt positive action to stop dumping in
the area, a billboard campaign asking businesses
if they have a DIRTY SECRET has been launched
at Moorfields and Central train stations.
Buses sporting adverts that
condemn businesses that commit waste crime as
SCUM, VERMIN and TRASH are also touring the area,
as part of the hard-hitting campaign to stamp
out waste crime.
Other tactics being used include
sending a mock poison pen letter to mechanics,
builders and retailers, occupations that are deemed
to be the top three worst waste crime offenders.
The letter calls on those who are not disposing
of waste legally or know of businesses that are
not to contact the Environment Agency and make
waste their business.
Free dirty calendars will also
be sent out. Fronted by a scantly clad professional
model, the calendar features 12 of the dirtiest
sites in the North West – the worst business waste
crime prosecutions brought by the Environment
Agency during 2004-05.
Tony Dean, Regional Director
of Environment Agency North West, said: "’Make
waste your business – before we make it ours’
is the theme of the campaign and we want to work
with businesses to help them understand the various
waste disposal options. Advice is available to
help them minimise the amount of waste they produce,
which has cost benefits for them and we want to
make sure they understand their legal duty to
dispose of waste responsibly.
"The campaign tackles fly-tipping
all the way down the waste chain – from businesses
that flout the law and turn a blind eye to where
their rubbish goes, to the unscrupulous tippers
who charge for rubbish removal and then profit
from dumping it illegally."
Businesses can be fined up to
£50,000 and could face imprisonment for
disposing of their waste illegally. Sophisticated
techniques such as surveillance cameras, roadblocks,
covert operations, automatic number plate recognition
and forensic science are being used to catch these
criminals.
Anyone commissioning someone
to dispose of their waste including household
waste could also face hefty fines of up to £5,000
if the person is not registered to dispose of
waste. People can now check that their waste carriers
are legally registered by log on to: www.environment-agency.gov.uk/publicregister
To report a pollution incident
call 0800 80 70 60.
Ends
Notes to editors:
In 2006/07 Defra’s BREW programme
will award £90 million. For further information
see www.defra.gov.uk/enviornment/waste/brew
BREW is Defra’s Business Resource Efficiency and
Waste programme. It provides extra support for
businesses on resource efficiency and should deliver
substantial financial savings for businesses,
as well as significant environmental benefits.
The Environment Agency is one of the organisations
that will deliver this programme, receiving funding
to help tackle waste crime issues.
The Government will raise the rate of Landfill
Tax for active waste by at least £3 per
tonne every year until it reaches £35 per
tonne. The Government has committed to making
these increases revenue-neutral to businesses
and local authorities.
