The Waste Mafia [technology - waste

Abstract

Waste crime is now more lucrative than contract killing, and criminals are getting more sophisticated. But could technology help end it once and for all? "OUR GOAL FOR waste crime is very simple: stop it. That's an audacious ambition, about which we are totally unapologetic," said a determined Sir James Bevan in a stirring speech to the waste industry earlier this year. Bevan, who is chief executive of the Environment Agency (EA), noted that waste crime costs the economy around £1bn each year and attracts organised criminals, who invest their ill-gotten proceeds into cycles of violence. This is because rewards are high - often greater than robbery, drug dealing or contract killing - and the chances of being caught "have always been relatively low, and the penalties if you are caught traditionally light", he said. The EA is talking tough. Yet the concern is that six years ago Bevan made a similar speech, in which he famously likened waste crime to the "new narcotics" and pledged to bring down the "waste mafia". Since then, the situation has deteriorated.