Three men arrested in connection with organised waste crime

24 Jan 2025 11:21 AM

Three men were arrested near Peterborough on 21 January, as part of an investigation into large-scale, organised deposits of waste across counties including Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.

Officers from the Environment Agency and Cambridgeshire Police inspected the site where bales of waste were found in coloured plastic wrap.

Cambridgeshire Police were integral to the arrests and custody of the suspects, enabling Environment Agency enforcement officers to successfully continue their investigation.

Waste criminals have been known to dump bales of waste in rural locations to conceal them as farming bales. We are appealing to landowners, businesses, and members of the public to report any plastic-wrapped bales they see in suspicious places, which are unlikely to be silage or hay stored by farmers or equestrian facilities.

If you have any information that may assist with this investigation, please call our 24-hour hotline on 0800 807060. Or report anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or the Crimestoppers website.

Waste crime pollutes our environment, undercuts legitimate business and significantly affects our farmers and rural communities.

Background information

• Farmers and equestrian facilities wrap silage or hay in plastic and legitimately store this on their sites.
• The abandonment of bales of waste has been a problem in previous years. They are often found in rented or vacant warehouses or on farmland. Landowners have been duped by criminals into storing bales on their land and end up paying high removal costs once they are revealed to be baled waste.
• A waste environmental permit from the Environment Agency is needed to deposit and store bales of waste at any site in England under the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016.