Six or seven containers containing illegal waste heading out of the country have been stopped at Felixstowe, the Environment Agency (EA) said yesterday.
EA head of waste strategy Martin Brocklehurst said the waste that had been classified as green list waste was actually found to be mixed municipal waste.
We will be back-tracking that waste, he warned.
With recent high-profile national media coverage of waste being illegally exported out of this country, Environmental Services Association (ESA) chief executive Dirk Hazell was keen to defend his industry members.
I would be astonished if any of those containers were from ESA members, he said.
ESA members do not export waste for disposal. But there is a perfectly legitimate and managed trade in recyclable materials. He added that its members adhered by a code of conduct that went beyond legal requirements.
Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) chief executive Jennie Price concurred that there was a perfectly legitimate market in the trade of recyclable material, adding that it was environmentally preferable for recyclables to go back and replace virgin material.
But she warned that it was becoming increasingly important to face the challenges of proper enforcement, to ensure that public confidence in recycling was not damaged.
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