By Jonah Fisher.
The environment correspondent.
The image is from Martin Montague.
The head of the Environment Agency has called fly-tipping and waste crime the "new narcotics" of the 21st century.
There would be checks on who is allowed to handle and dispose of waste.
The illegal dumping of rubbish, like mattresses and bags of waste, is called fly-tipping.
There were more than one million fly-tip incidents in England in the year 2020.
The cost, which includes clear-up and lost taxes, is estimated to be $1 billion a year.
The Environment Agency's Carrier, Broker and Dealer registration scheme is one of the flaws that will be addressed by the government's reforms.
The consultation on reforms only covers England, but there will be mandatory digital waste tracking in the UK.
If you want someone to come to your house and pick up an old sofa or rubbish, you should be able to check if they are legal by going online.
Mike Brown, who runs an environmental consulting company, discovered that almost no checks were made on who could register. He registered his dead dog to highlight the flaws in the system.
Oscar, our beloved dog, died in 2006 He said that they were surprised at how easy it was to register him as a waste carrier.
There is an image caption.
Mike Brown registered his dead dog as a waste collector to expose a flaw in the system.
The reason the system is broken is that the funding for the waste regulator has been reduced over the last decade, which means that the rules are being tested by criminals, whose proceeds from crime have increased.
The system hasn't changed since then. If you have the money, you can register yourself or your pets to take away the trash. A columnist has a goldfish.
Many people don't get as far as the website and use unlicensed operators. Many of the waste disposal services advertised are not registered.
Sir James Bevan, the head of the Environment Agency, has called it the "new narcotics" of waste crime.
Garbage disposal costs money, whether in landfill tax or the fees paid for it to be processed or recycled. Criminals make money by undercutting the prices of legal operators and then dumping the load without paying any fees.
Sam Corp, head of regulation at the Environmental Services Association, said that organised crime has emerged in this sector because it is low-risk and high-reward.
To be counted as fly-tipping, waste must be larger than a black bin. It's a littering offense if less.
A person can be fined or even go to prison if caught fly tipping.
The on-the-spot fines can be as high as £50,000.
Households can be fined if they pass their waste on to an unlicensed party.
It is the responsibility of the local council to clear up public land. Investigations and prosecutions were carried out last year.
Martin Montague is an anti-fly tipping activist. He set up the Clearwaste website and app so people could report fly-tipped waste.
He scrolls through pictures of broken wood and bursting bin bags that have been left across the UK, as he says, "We get something new every few minutes."
There is an image caption.
People can report fly-tipping on the website set up by Martin Montague.
The appetite for trying to gather evidence to try to catch those responsible has grown since Mr. Montague passed on his information to local councils.
He told me that he would probably put cameras in the area. There is a lot of rubbish, both bin bags and sheets of asbestos, some of which has yellow tape on it.
The penalties are so little that it's lucrative. Are you going to deal drugs or fly-tip on a large scale? It is a good cash generator.
There is a government consultation on waste crime. Background checks would be introduced into the registration system, with those given permits having to demonstrate they were competent.
The introduction of digital waste tracking would mean that those handling waste would have to record information from the point the waste is produced to the stage it is recycled.
The reforms were meant to crack down on those responsible for waste crimes, according to the minister.
She said that people need to be able to see that they are using an authorized carrier and that their waste is going to be properly dispose of.
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