Biffa, the waste management company, has been fined £350,000 for trying to transport household waste which was labelled as paper fit for recycling over to China.
They attempted to ship it from the Suffolk port of Felixstowe to China before being inspected by the Environmental Agency and they found some highly unusual content!
The 25 tonne shipping containers set for China had all sorts inside with: plastic bags, sanitary items, condoms and scrap metal all found in the huge containers. Inspectors even found a 12-inch record of 90s band Dee-Lite.
As of 2017 Biffa Waste Services is the UK’s second-largest waste management company. The waste management giants service over two million households and four million bins a week, within its division.
Biffa claimed that 98.7% of the waste was recyclable paper which was not the case. Shipping contaminated waste to the world’s most populated country has been illegal since 2006 as it isn’t in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The waste management firm was convicted on two counts of breaching waste management laws in 2015 after a 21-day trial at Wood Green Crown Court.
The Environmental Agency blocked all of the seven shipping containers that tried to leave Felixstowe Port.
