Only around 5 per cent of recycling exports are checked before they leave the country, making it easy for criminals to dump waste abroad, MPs have been told. 

Between 5 and 6 per cent of waste exports were stopped at ports and inspected by the Environment Agency in the last three months of 2021, according to testimony from Jacob Hayler, the executive director at Environmental Services Association, which represents the waste industry. 

It was a “low risk, high reward” crime to ship mixed waste abroad masquerading as recycling, MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee were told. 

“Even when you do get caught, you might get a four-figure fine when you’ve made a six, seven figure profit,” Mr Hayler told MPs. “It’s ridiculous. It’s completely out of balance.” 

The UK exports around 60 per cent of its plastic recycling, with most of it going to Turkey, the Netherlands and Poland. 

Turkey receives around 40 per cent of the one million tonnes of plastic waste collected in the UK for recycling. Around half of that is of such low quality that it cannot be recycled, according to experts in Turkey, and is left to be dumped or burned. 

But MPs were told that only around 1 per cent of waste exports are actually barred from leaving the country. 

MPs heard from Nihan Temiz Ataş, of Greenpeace Mediterranean, of the impact on people and the land of burnt plastic waste, which causes the spread of chemicals in the environment.  

Plastic market ‘rigged’

“Countries like the UK who ship their plastic trash overseas where it’s dumped and burned are leaving a toxic trace,” Ms Ataş said. 

Megan Randles, from Greenpeace UK, said the plastic market was “rigged” in favour of criminals, whose tactics were “very sophisticated and will only evolve”, including hiding worthless rubbish alongside recycling. 

Waste exporters are paid per ton of recycling they send off, with certificates for the waste sold on to companies, such as supermarkets and other retailers, that have to meet government quotas for recycling.  

MPs were told that the current system means there is no oversight of when or what waste is being exported. 

“It is only if a random check is carried out at the port by the Environment Agency that you can be certain that the material has met the standard that is required,” said Tim Rotheray, from recycling company Viridor. 

‘Waste crime is low risk and high reward’

“Criminals view the recycling and waste sector as a soft target and the current enforcement regime, along with small penalties for the few that are caught, means that waste crime is low risk and high reward,” Mr Hayler told The Telegraph. 

“Fraudulent exports of waste masquerading as recycling damage confidence in the recycling industry, undermine investment by legitimate operators in domestic recycling markets, and slow efforts to re-shore as much recycling activity as possible.

“We would like to see greater intelligence-led enforcement on export activity to target the criminal operators who are causing environmental harm and deliberately setting out to cheat the system.”

The Government has made a pledge to end exports to countries outside the OECD, which would not affect Turkey, but has yet to bring it in. 

Ending imports would require significant investment in domestic infrastructure as the UK does not have the recycling capacity for all of its own plastic waste.