Fine of $2m for export of rubbish as waste paper

The UK’s largest waste company, Biffa, was fined £1.5m ($2.1m) after exporting filthy rubbish marked as waste paper for recycling in India and Indonesia, in actions that a judge called “reckless, bordering on deliberate”.

The company was convicted of sending more than 1,000 tonnes of household waste to India and Indonesia, in breach of a ban.

Approximately 50,000 tins, 40,000 plastic bags and 3,000 nappies were among the items packaged as waste paper for export to Asia in Biffa’s recycling facility in Edmonton, north London, between 2018 and 2019. It is the second time in two years the company has been fined for exporting household waste to a non-OECD country.

Investigators who discovered the rogue waste recorded

“a strong putrid” smell and an “acidic aroma” after they held 16 25-tonne containers at Southampton, but 26 more had already left the port.