Organised criminals are illegally burying thousands of tonnes of waste across Scotland, a BBC investigation finds.
Waste like this - which was buried illegally in Wales - is now being brought to Scotland
One claimed to have been threatened that their animals would be killed if they did not agree to let waste be buried on their land, while many others spoken to by the BBC were too scared to go on the record. Ms McDowall said they had "taken lessons they've learned from doing other types of criminality and are now applying it to waste".The legitimate disposal of rubbish is an expensive business because of the cost of complying with tight regulations and landfill taxes.Image caption,Drew Murdoch is managing director of J&M Murdoch and Son, a family-run waste business which has been operating legitimately for 50 years.
An insider from one criminal network involved in burying waste told Disclosure that waste was "the new drugs". The BBC has been told the criminal gangs are using a network of brokers to identify parcels of land in Scotland where they can bury industrial quantities of waste. Another method is to fill old lorry trailers with waste and abandon them in laybys and quiet streets around the country.
Sepa does not have a specific clean-up fund, so it must redirect money from other environmental work when illegal dumps need to be cleared.Richard Sinnott, an atmospheric scientist at Sepa, told the BBC it was an "increasing trend", and that he could not overstate how damaging it was to Scotland's environment.
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