To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the environmental cost of waste crime in England and Wales.
Answered on
15 April 2019
The Environment Agency has published an evaluation of the effect of additional funding on tackling waste crime, identifying £5 worth of potential benefits for each £1 invested. This included an estimated environmental cost of £1.86-£1.88 per tonne of waste on illegal waste sites.
www.gov.uk/government/publications/waste-crime-interventions-and-evaluation
Additionally, Rethinking Waste Crime, published by the Environmental Services Association in 2017, estimated the economic impact of waste crime in England at over £600 million. This includes wider economic impacts and is not limited to environmental costs.