Organised gangs clean up in illegal landfills

ORGANISED criminal gangs, possibly with paramilitary connections, are involved in the large-scale and lucrative business of transporting waste from the Republic and illegally dumping it over the Border, authorities in the North believe.

Anne Blacker, a principal scientific officer with the North’s Environment and Heritage Service, said of alleged criminal and paramilitary involvement: “It’s something we have been aware of informally.”

A lack of landfill sites, high charges and a crackdown on illegal dumping here has led to the growth in cross border waste smuggling in recent months.

The potential earnings are huge. It costs up to €150 to dump a ton of rubbish at a landfill in the State. Illegal carriers can charge half that amount, earn €5,000 on one run and pay out as little as 500 to landowners in the North. There is an estimated shortfall in landfill space for between 400,000 to 500,000 tonnes in the greater Dublin area alone, according to the 2002 Bacon Report on waste crisis.

Southern carriers are exploiting loopholes that make it difficult to pursue a prosecution against them in the North if they refuse to respond to a summons. However, the authorities are fighting back and Ms Blacker said it was proposed to bring in legislation making those illegally transporting and dumping waste liable to immediate arrest and make it easier to seize vehicles.

Checkpoints, manned by environmental officers accompanied by PSNI members for security reasons, are regularly set up along the border. One lorry owner has already been prosecuted in the North for transporting waste without proper registration. A number of others are being investigating in connection with the illegal transport or dumping of rubbish and the files are with the North’s Director of Public Prosecutions. Under legislation, the maximum fine for illegal dumping on summary conviction is £20,000.

Ms Blacker said that it was difficult to say whether illegal dumping has increased in the North but people are becoming more aware of the problem. However, there is increasing evidence of waste being smuggling from the South. Commercial and domestic waste, including bags of medical products, was uncovered in Tyrone’s Clogher Valley, just a mile from the border. It is believed to have come from Wicklow, Donegal and Dublin. Environmental group Friends of the Earth estimated that a lot of material illegally dumped at a site in County Derry came from Tipperary, Wexford and Limerick.

District councils in the North are also cracking down on householders nipping across the border and dumping domestic rubbish in civic amenity sites. Surveillance cameras and height restriction barriers are being placed at sites run by various councils as growing numbers of householders are tempted across the border because of increasing bin charges.

Gerry Knox, of Fermanagh District Council, said the border villages of Belleek, Garrison and Rosslea are the worst affected. “The problem has been getting worse over the last six to nine months, and we have had to take measures to counteract it,” he said. “But this is the lesser of two evils, the alternative could be that people dump their waste illegally.”