UK firm Biffa fined over Rs 15 crore for illegally exporting household waste to India and Indonesia

New Delhi: Biffa, a famous name on the United Kingdom's bin collections' list, has been fined over Rs 15 crore (£1.5 million) for illegally exporting household waste to India and Indonesia. The waste firm was penalised on Friday (July 30, 2021) for breaking export law which the judge called 'reckless, bordering on deliberate'. 

The Government of the United Kingdom informed that Biffa Waste Services Ltd's latest breaches of export law uncovered by the Environment Agency involved rolling contracts to send vast amounts of waste to India and Indonesia. Material exported illegally included 50,000 tins, 40,000 plastic bags, 25,000 items of clothing, 3,000 nappies, condoms, a frying pan and a souvenir New York t-shirt. 

In addition to the £1.5 million fine, Biffa was also ordered to pay costs of over Rs 1.5 crore (£153,827.99) and proceeds of crime order of Rs 39.70 lakh (£38,388).

Malcolm Lythgo, head of waste regulation at the Environment Agency, said that Biffa shipped banned materials to developing countries, without having systems in place to prevent the offences. He said that this guilty verdict underlines that anyone producing or handling waste must only export material legally and safely for recycling.

A jury last week had also convicted Biffa guilty of four offences of exporting poorly-sorted household waste from its recycling facility at Edmonton in north London to Asia in 2018 and 2019. Investigators held 16 25-tonne containers at Southampton, but 26 more had already left the port. In September 2019, Biffa was fined £3,50,000, with costs of £2,40,000 and proceeds of crime order of £9,912, for sending contaminated household waste, described as waste paper, to China between May and June 2015.

This is to be noted that exports of unsorted household recycling waste from the UK to India and Indonesia have been banned since 1994.