Leading recycled aggregate companies have called on the Environment Agency to re-consider its controversial new levy forced on the industry to fund fighting crime waste.
The Environment Agency plans to impose a 10% levy on compliant firms’ waste permit fees from April to help tackle unscrupulous operators.
The levy has been described as “unjust” for compliant businesses which could also discourage further investment in the Circular Driven Economy.
Firms that recycle and reuse millions of tonnes of demolition and construction waste to produce vital recycled aggregate will be hit by the levy created to recover policing costs of unrelated illegal waste activities.
Katie Sheehan, Sales Director of the Sheehan Group, said: “This is an unjust levy and I’d appeal to the Environment Agency to re-consider its plans as a matter of urgency. It needs to punish the perpetrators of crime harder, rather than decent operators.
“If it imposed the maximum fines possible for those convicted of waste crime, it would not need to levy operators who are compliant with their environmental responsibilities.
“Companies like ours have invested millions in the best technology available to help the UK construct industry hit net-zero. I’d like to see stronger measures that tackle those who commit waste crime directly alongside improved support businesses that follow and encourage sustainable practices.”
David Kinloch, Director of UK & Ireland, Australasia & MEA at CDE Group, said: “This is incredibly disappointing for the very businesses who are doing the right thing and helping the construction industry reduce its carbon footprint.
“CDE customers invest millions in equipment, sites and processes to divert waste from landfill and play a major role in the circular economy and deserve support, not additional unjust costs.
“They are abiding by the laws yet are being penalised for it because of people who are non-compliant. It does not make sense and I’d encourage the Environment Agency to re-think this illogical and unfair levy as a matter of urgency.”
Matthew Lawman, Director of Land Reclamation and Circular Economy at AA Environmental Limited, a leading consultancy to the mineral recycling sector, said: “The Environment Agency’s action is potentially harmful to the pioneers and leading lights of the mineral recycling sector.
“The Environment Agency’s waste permitting regime is already cumbersome and costly, causing delays and additional costs to the sector. This comes is in a year when Government is already putting additional commercial strain on businesses.
“Companies will have to accommodate these costs whilst already heavily investing in recovery systems and compliance. Asking these operators to pay additional money for the Environment Agency to do their job is, in my opinion, totally unacceptable.”
Mark Russell, Executive Director at the Mineral Products Association, said: “Regulators often view increasing fees as the solution to their financial problems, when from our perspective such charges rarely deliver the desired improvements.
“But the waste crime levy takes things to a disturbing new level. Compliant businesses should not be treated as a cash cow to raise additional income to support other activities.
“Cumulative regulatory drag is real and is already harming the British economy. Yet we continue to see incremental changes that introduce additional cost, bureaucracy, time and effort, often with little meaningful effect.
“This decision flies in the face of the Government’s drive to kickstart economic growth, and it will discourage investment in the circular economy.”
The Sheehan Group is a family-run business based that specialises in sustainable construction, recycling and civil engineering.
Last year, its team celebrated a landmark recycling milestone after saving more than one million tonnes of construction and demolition waste from UK landfill sites in the decade since the group invested in CDE recycling technology.
CDE is the world’s number one wet processing equipment company for sand and aggregates, mining, C&D waste recycling and wastewater solutions.