Tyrone
Magunda - 22-Sep-2006 - On 21 September 2006 the
Environment Agency and Staffordshire Police took
part in spot checks of vehicles carrying waste
across Stoke on Trent in a bid to curtail the
blight of fly tipping.
Two police mobiles together
with officers from the Environment Agency’s Environment
Management teams based in Stafford stopped and
checked 13 vehicles. Environment Agency officers
are now processing the information gathered from
vehicles stopped to identify appropriate enforcement
action.
This exercise is the fourth
of its kind carried out in Stoke on Trent in the
past 12 months. It was funded by Defra`s Landfill
Tax Initiative BREW (Business Resource Efficiency
in Waste) and is designed to tackle fly-tipping
all the way down the waste chain. It targets businesses
that turn a blind eye to where the rubbish goes,
and to unscrupulous tippers who charge for rubbish
removal and then dump it illegally.
As well as further planned road
stops over the next 6 months the BREW campaign
will include both enforcement action against waste
crime and free support and advice to businesses
in Stoke on Trent to improve their management
of waste.
Doug Freakley, an Environment
Agency Team Leader involved in the stop and search
operation said; "Businesses and householders
have a duty of care to dispose of their waste
properly. We are encouraging people to take responsibility
for their own waste and ensure that it does not
get into the hands of these illegal operators.
We are also trying to support businesses who are
operating within the law, by creating a level
playing field and catching the illegal operators".
Offenders who carry waste illegally
and then fly-tip waste face fines of up to £5,000
and £50,000, respectively.
Notes to editors
Duty of care
To find out more about your
duty of care and giving your waste to other people
log on to our website at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/waste/1030612/1216143/
Flytipping
Flytipping costs an estimated
£100-£150 million every year to investigate
and clear up. The cost falls on taxpayers and
private landowners.
Flytipping is the illegal dumping of waste. It
can vary in scale significantly from a bin bag
of rubbish to large quantities of waste dumped
from trucks. Fly-tipped waste may be found anywhere,
such as roadsides, in lay-bys or on private land.
