Last month (19 – 22 April) the Scottish Environment Protection Agency teamed up with Police Scotland, Aberdeen council Trading Standards and others as part of ‘Operation Protector’ to clamp down on waste crime in the north east of Scotland.
The action took place at locations across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and Moray and saw 59 commercial vehicles stopped and checked.
Of these, 17 (29%) were unauthorised waste carriers, which resulted in 13 warnings and triggered four investigations.
The week of action was designed to catch those illegally transporting waste, gather data about the nature of waste crime in the area, and highlight duty of care to responsible waste companies and householders, SEPA said.
Waste enforcement
The regulator launched a dedicated intelligence and enforcement function in October 2019 in a bid to tackle growing waste crime.
According to SEPA, “communities in the Moray, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire Council areas are adversely affected by those involved in waste crime.”
The agency said it is currently tracking around 200 unlicensed waste sites in Scotland, some of which are linked to serious and organised crime activities.
Of these, 22 are in the Grampian and Speyside areas, and nine are considered as “posing a significant environmental risk.”
Organised crime
Kath McDowall, unit manager at SEPA’s Serious Environmental Crime Team, said: “Waste crime is an issue across all of Scotland and there are illegal waste sites of quite significant scale in the North East.”
Inspector Claire Smith, of Police Scotland, pointed out that organised criminals are profiting from the illegal disposal of waste “seeing it as an easy way of making money.
“Their illegal activities not only have a significant environmental impact, but the profits made are then being used to finance other illegal activities.
“Under Operation Protector, Police Scotland will continue to work with partners to reduce the harm caused by serious and organised crime and to disrupt their activities wherever possible,” she concluded.
Prevention
Residents are encouraged to help by refusing to engage waste service providers who are not licenced by, or registered with SEPA, and by asking for evidence that the person offering to pick up their waste is a registered waste carrier.
They can report any incidents online at sepa.org.uk/report or call 0800 80 70 60.
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