Grosvenor Waste Management (GWM) Ltd have been fined £55,000 this month, for illegally exporting household rubbish to developing nations. The waste firm, who are based in Crayford, Kent, handles waste from London and the Home Counties, however Maidstone Crown Court heard how they exported up to 1.8 million kilograms of household waste to India, China and Indonesia. They pleaded guilty to six breaches of the Transfrontier Shipments of Waste Regulations SI 1994/1137, following a two-year investigation by the Environment Agency.
Under EU rules, rubbish can be exported for recycling but not disposal. Municipal waste has far stricter controls, and the Environment Agency must be notified before shipments can leave the UK. Around 15 containers due to be shipped to China and India were detained at Southampton, with paperwork wrongly claiming they contained waste paper. Another 60 containers destined for Wuhu in China were sent via Holland, where 53 of them were detained by the Dutch environment regulator. A further 20 were inspected by customs officials in the Indonesian capital Jakarta.
John Burns, the Environment Agency's ports project manager said, "This is one of the largest cases of its kind and shows we won't hesitate to pursue companies who export waste illegally." In a statement, GWM Ltd said, "The judge noted that the offences had occurred over a very short period of time, and that GWM pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity. Realising the problem they sought to put things right earlier rather than later."
