A report commissioned by the Environmental Services Association Educational Trust (ESAET) and ESA has put forward a series of recommendations for the government to improve efforts to tackle waste crime.

Rethinking Waste Crime, which was written by consultancy firm Eunomia and supported by the ‘Right Waste Right Place’ campaign, states that waste crime in England incurs losses to the waste industry and the taxpayer of close to £604 million a year.

According to the report, despite efforts by government and regulatory bodies to tackle the issue, waste crime is ‘more entrenched than ever’.

The report suggests that there are six key areas where waste crime occurs which include: illegal waste sites, illegal burning of waste, fly-tipping, misclassification and fraud, serious breaches of permit conditions and illegal exports of waste.

Rethinking Waste Crime puts forward fourteen recommendations on how waste crime can be tackled more effectively. These fall under the categories: modernising the regulatory regime; improving enforcement efforts; developing secure sources of enforcement funding; and, improving cost-regulatory cooperation and raising awareness.

Among the recommendations, Rethinking Waste Crime suggests applying bans to serious and repeat offenders to make it more difficult for waste criminals to re-enter the sector; imposing landfill tax on illegal waste sites; and, increasing enforcement activities by regulatory bodies.