Environment Agency v Inglenorth, 2009 Env LR 33
Citation: Environment Agency v Inglenorth, 2009 Env LR 33
Rule of thumb: Are you allowed to bury waste in your own property? As a general rule, no, however, if you can prove using expert evidence that this in some way was environmentally efficient then you may be able to avoid sanction for this.
Judgment:
The facts of this case were that the owner of garden centre destroyed a fairly large green house. This owner also owned another garden centre that was undergoing regeneration. Rather than this owner recycle the glass and other rubble the garden centre owner used it to fill in a large hole he had in the ground at his other property that he was turning into a car park. The environmental agency argued that this product should have been recycled and this effectively constituted the illegal dumping of waste by the owner. The owner was able to rely on expert evidence to successfully that this was product was indeed used for this type of purpose, and in fact having the sub-terrain ground in a car park like this, rather than just mud in the standard way, ensured that it was porous and was less likely to flood, and indeed overall from an engineering perspective this was ‘good’ construction rather than just standard construction. Commentators struggled to predict what the outcome of this case would be and the decision of the Court has received criticism from some quarters and praise from others – this is generally the type of case that is considered to be a ‘50/50’ in waste law, ‘... certain analysis is necessary... correct test to distinguish waste from non-waste... a valuable commodity intended for immediate reuse... make a good car park... immediate reuse cannot be taken literally... there is some decay before it is bought (or reused)... not waste...’, May J
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