Waste blitz in South-East
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III Waste carriers in the SouthEast will be subject to a series of roadside checks within the next few weeks to weed out unregistered operators.
More police and local waste regulation authority checks look set to be carried out in other parts of Britain in the near future to catch lawbreakers.
The authorities think the checks are necessary because of the high number of carriers carrying household, industrial and commercial waste which have failed to register with their local waste regulation authority. The Environmental Protection Act means carriers had to register by 1 April this year.
The London Waste Regulation Authority's waste reduction officer Jeff Cooper says: "We think there are a lot of nonregistered carriers out there ... There will be action taken regarding the enforcement of the registration of carriers. It will possibly be repeated in other areas." There are no figures for the numbers registered nationally but in London nearly 10,000 carriers have come forward. It had been anticipated there were up to 15,000 carriers.
Meanwhile, environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth is urging the Government to force all local waste regulation authorities to join a national list of registered carriers.
The call comes as it emerges that nearly 30% of the 97 waste regulation authorities in England, Scotland and Wales have failed to co-operate with compilation of the list. The voluntary scheme, organised by the LWRA, is aimed at providing information on carriers — including company names and their directors — for both enforcement authorities and the public.
"les the role of central government to wield the big stick and say if this system is going to work everyone has got to be part of it'," according to FoE waste campaigner Sean Humber.
In a report out last week FoE says landfill sites are causing widespread damage to countryside of scientific importance. In Dumping on our Countryside FoE states the costs of clearing up the sites should be borne by those producing and disposing the waste.