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Making life better for people by inspiring solutions to environmental problems

Green group begins legal action on illegal dumping.

Friends of the Earth today made a formal complaint to the European Commission on the Department of the Environment's poor record at enforcing waste laws[1] which could see huge fines imposed on Northern Ireland. The complaint details several landfill sites which are operating in breach of their waste disposal licences or, in some cases, without waste disposal licences[2].

Illegal dumping has a serious detrimental effect, not just on the environment but also on the
health and welfare of people living close by. Locals have to put up with infestations of flies, odours, ill-health and disturbance from dumping at all hours of the day and night.

The cases cited in Friends of the Earth's complaint are just the tip of the iceberg. Northern
Ireland is littered with illegal landfill sites and the business has become a very profitable one.

Declan Allison, Waste Campaigner with Friends of the Earth (Northern Ireland) said,

"This isn't simply nuisance fly-tipping but persistent, large-scale, organised dumping in sites
which are neither licensed nor engineered to accept the waste. It is such big business now that waste is coming from across the whole island of Ireland".

He continued,

"It is unacceptable that the job of enforcing the law should fall to environmental groups like
Friends of the Earth and Europe. When does the DOE plan to take some meaningful action and prosecute the operators of these illegal landfill sites? It's time the Department really did wake up to
waste."

The complaint is the latest in a series of similar actions taken by the green group[3]. Friends of the Earth will be pressing the Commission to begin infraction proceedings for breaches of the Waste Framework Directive which could lead to Northern Ireland being prosecuted in the European Court and ultimately fined.

Notes

[1] (back) The European Waste Framework Directive (75/442/EEC) as amended.

[2] (back) The complaint can be found here.

[3] (back) Friends of the Earth has recently made complaints on Water Service's continuing breaches of
a sewage law, the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, and the failure by DOE and DARD to properly protect Strangford Lough under the Habitats Directive.