Rubber storage scam
Farmers and landowners are now being targeted to store lorry loads of rubber on their land, in preparation of road works that are due to take place in the near future.
This is an ongoing version of the waste that was stored supposedly as straw bales.
If you are approached by anyone – we have had reports that the front man is well dressed, smart, and well educated – asking for storage use of your land, you should exercise caution as to the intentions of the person.
Storage of bales
The storages of bales on site are also continuing in our region. Various items have been shown to be inside the wrapped bales, including household waste.
Four sites in Lincolnshire have been identified in the last two-three weeks.
One farmer is left with a bill of £40 thousand to get the waste removed, but another farmer has a bill for £250 thousand.
The waste must be removed, as it is at risk from self-combust and arson. It will deteriorate and lead to leaching and work its way into watercourse etc.
Wood chippings scam
If you are offered wood chippings for bedding use – please again exercise caution.
When these deliveries have taken place, the chippings are totally unsuitable for such use, and have come from treated wood, of particular poor quality which is only suitable for incineration facilities which have appropriate emission controls to deal with the toxins produced when burnt.
Again this material is highly susceptible to self-combustion and can burn for weeks/months with acrid smoke/fumes.
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) / Baled Waste
What is it?
RDF typically consists of pelletized, dried, or shredded waste from household/commercial waste collections. The waste undergoes a treatment process to remove recyclable materials and non-combustible components such as metals, glass, and grit. Other names given to similar waste types include Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF), Tyre Derived Fuel (TRF) etc.
What types of wood waste are there?
Generally speaking, wood waste falls into two categories: treated and untreated.
Untreated wood is either virgin timber or “clean” wood i.e. wood which has not been subjected to applications of paint, varnish, staining, fungicides, preservative, adhesives etc.
Treated wood is anything falling outside the above description and will typically take the form of fence panels, MDF, chipboard and painted or stained wooden products.
For further advice please contact: Environment Agency Email: enquiries@environment-agency.gov.uk
Telephone: 03708 506 506 Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
So far over the last year, we have had 43 incidents reported directly by our members.
Types of incident reported are
Concern for safety
Inconsiderate behaviour
Burglary
Wildlife issues such as hare coursing
Vehicle nuisance
Theft
Lincolnshire Police relies on information being passed to us by members of the public, so please keep your calls coming, although it may be that your information towards crime is small, when we piece together information it gives us a much bigger picture of what is happening in our communities.
A simple example might be:
LincsAlert member sees a car moving suspiciously slowly down a street and takes the registration number and car make.
Later that night a house is burgled while the owners are absent. No one sees or hears anything but when a LincsAlert message is issued regarding the burglary, the car registration is passed to us which points to a known serial burglar being in the area at that time.
Without that information being given, we may struggle to link persons to a crime scene without forensic evidence.
Solving crime is like a jigsaw puzzle, you piece all the pieces of information together to complete the crime details and hopefully find and convict the criminal!