More than 1.5 million tonnes of illegal hazardous waste materials have been uncovered along with new transportation networks, by a global operation led by international crime agency INTERPOL.

Two former waste company directors have been ordered to pay over  £750,000, one of North Wales’s largest ever fines, following the illegal storage of over 4,000 tonnes of waste.

The Environment Agency has vowed to crack down on illegal waste export activity at ports after officers conducted an intelligence-gathering operation in Essex.

Essex-based waste company T J Cottis Transport has been fined just under £20,000 for knowingly depositing waste illegally to act as flood defences on protected farm land in Essex.

The Environment Agency has partnered with the ESA to collaborate and focus resources on poorly-performing sites in an attempt to raise standards of operation within the sector and fight waste crime.

A gang of four men have been handed a combined sentence of 32 years for human trafficking and exploitation offences after forcing Polish workers to work long hours for low pay in poor conditions in recycling plants in the North East.

A young boy has been hospitalised and remains in a critical condition in Belfast after coming into contact with hazardous waste that had been dumped on a bonfire.

Former waste management boss Adrian Lewis has been given three months by a Welsh court to pay £340,000 in clean-up costs after illegally stockpiling thousands of tonnes of waste.

Officers from Buckinghamshire County Council studying over 600 tonnes of fly-tipped waste dumped beneath a bridge in Hillingdon have launched 30 investigations into the identity of those responsible.

The ESA has called on UK political parties standing in June’s general election to commit to building a strong and competitive resource economy through four key policy recommendations.