Ministers are set to introduce stricter background checks for waste carriers after the current system allowed a cow to be legally approved for household rubbish disposal.
The Environment Department (Defra) confirmed that new laws will be laid this week, requiring all those who handle and transport waste to prove their qualifications. Operators found to be mishandling waste will also face up to five years in prison under the new rules, ministers announced.
These changes are part of a wider government crackdown on rogue waste operators and criminals, following a recent surge in illegal dumping and fly-tipping across the country.
Under the current system, waste carriers only need to register with the Environment Agency (EA) via a basic paper-based process, undergoing limited identity and background checks.
Ministers say this means both organised criminals and “rogue operators” who dump waste ineffectively and leave large clean-up bills can enter the system.
The lax process has also allowed animals to receive approval, with the BBC recently reporting that Ann Maidment, director of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), successfully applied for a licence on behalf of one of her cows called Beau Vine.
The new system, which ministers say will come into force in 2027, will require applicants to undergo more rigorous identity and criminal record checks as well as a competency assessment online before they receive a permit.
Approved operators will then have to display their permit number in advertising, including on their vans.
The hope is to make it easier for the public to identify good players or report unlicensed operators, officials said.
Speaking to the Press Association, waste minister Mary Creagh said: “Under our new system, Beau Vine would fall at the first hurdle because she doesn’t have a digital identity.
“She’ll have to prove her identity and then prove that she is a technically competent person, so there’s a double hurdle to remove fictitious operators or to stop them gaining access to the system.”
Introducing permits for waste carriers will give the Environment Agency stronger powers to revoke them and carry out enforcement action, ministers added.
They also hope more operators will be deterred by the introduction of custodial sentences, given that those found illegally transporting or dealing in waste currently only face court fines.
“This is a Cinderella industry,” Ms Creagh said.
“People don’t want to think about what happens to the stuff in their blue and green and brown recycling bins once it’s left their kerbside.
“But there’s a big industry behind it, which is about recycling, about repurposing and reprocessing those materials.
“And once the criminals realised that it was a paper-based system, they’ve been exploiting it ever since.”
While the cost of enforcement action is covered by the Government, waste operators will have to pay for their permits as well as other compliance fees, which will help to fund the new system.
The Environment Agency will consult on these fees in the next few months, officials said.
Asked if the burden and cost of this system could end up penalising good players, Ms Creagh said: “That is not the intention.
“There probably will be fewer permits issued under the new system, so that operators actively show that they know what they’re doing when they’re handling and transporting waste, that people are who they say they are, and that there are consequences if they step outside of the permit system.”
She added that responsible operators have been “begging” the Government to introduce these reforms for years, saying they cannot wait to “drive out the widespread criminality that has been allowed to operate under the old paper-based system”.
The new laws are underpinned by the Government’s recently announced waste crime action plan, which sets out a range of measures to tackle waste crime.
Official figures show fly-tipping on public land increased by 9% last year to new highs while massive illegal waste sites such as a 150m-long mountain of rubbish near the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire have prompted public outrage.
Ms Creagh compared the “epidemic of flytipping and waste crisis” to water pollution, saying the previous Government allowed it to burgeon.
“People look around and they think: ‘Well, my place doesn’t matter, or my place is forgotten’,” she said.
“So it’s about putting the pride back into the places where people live.”
