UK waste handler convicted and fined in “strong message” to illegal traffickers

15 Aug 2022 --- The UK’s Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted a businessman for illegally exporting banned household waste. Tianyong Wang, who has registered numerous companies at a site in the Midlands, also formerly handled waste for recycling giant TerraCycle.

The banned waste included nappies, clothing, textiles, tins and electrical items and was sent to Indonesia in 2019. Containers were sent under the guise of holding used plastic bottles, which are legal to transport to the country. 

Instead, Wang caused his company to export 382 tons of household waste in 22 sea containers. Included in the waste were about 1,590 nappies or sanitary items, plus 1,338 electrical items and approximately 33,639 tins/cans. 

Other contaminants included numerous clothing items, textiles and rags, unopened plastic bags, glass, wood, golf balls, toys, a used toilet brush and contaminated food and drink cartons.

Wang has been ordered to pay £11,200 (US$13,543). In sentencing Kidderminster Magistrates Court, District Judge Strongman said this was a “blunder” by Wang, which had cost him his business and reputation. 

Illegal waste trafficking undermines legitimate business and economic growth, says the Environment Agency.Combatting waste trafficking 
Illegal waste trafficking is a huge problem for the packaging industry, with much of what is produced in the west ultimately being transported to developing nations for disposal – usually in landfills or incinerators. 

Greenpeace has estimated as much as 40% of the UK’s entire plastic packaging ends up dumped or burned in Turkey alone. Handlers can make vast sums of money by illegally shipping banned goods in place of other legitimate waste materials.  

Sham Singh, senior investigating officer for the Environment Agency, remarks: “This prosecution sends out a strong message that we will investigate and where necessary prosecute anyone found to be involved in illegally exporting waste.”

“Waste crime can have a serious environmental impact and puts communities at risk. It undermines legitimate business and the investment and economic growth that goes with it.”

“We support legitimate businesses and are proactively supporting them by disrupting and stopping the illegal waste exports.”

Berry Polymers 
Wang’s business, Berry Polymers, was set to pocket £103,210 (US$124,707) for 382.26 tons of “plastic bottles” before the Environment Agency inspected the containers and discovered rotting waste that it said made one of its officers physically sick. 

Wang claimed the material supplied was not as described because his company’s usual bale inspection had either not happened or was substandard. 

Last year, investigative journalists from Germany discovered around 30 bales of TerraCycle trash (supposed to be reprocessed in the UK) near an incineration site in Bulgaria. Wang’s business had exported this waste. 

In April this year, Wang pleaded guilty to exporting illegal waste to Indonesia. Berry Polymers has been dissolved, though he remains an active director of other waste businesses run from the same address. 

By Louis Gore-Langton