As Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is coordinating the Smarter Regulation of Waste in Europe (LIFE SMART Waste) Project.

The overarching goal of the LSW Project is to demonstrate innovative ways of understanding, tackling and reducing waste-related crime. Waste criminals are short-changing EU economies, avoiding the costs of legal waste management to make substantial profits from unlawful waste landfills. Across Europe, and beyond, there is a need amongst environmental regulators for more accurate, prompt and cost-effective detection of illegal waste sites.

In Phase 1 of this project the feasibility of using Remote Sensing (RS) technologies, and the successful applications of such tools in supporting environmental regulation, were considered in a REPORT.

SEPA now has an opportunity to appoint a suitable contractor – with proven knowledge, skills and experience – to develop and pilot an innovative RS approach for the detection of unknown illegal waste sites (for a number of challenging waste types).

The successful contractor will direct funds to procure and analyse remote sensing data to complement intelligence on waste crime scenarios. The aim will be to produce a workflow which will allow the detection of a range of waste types to a known accuracy.

This contract represents an opportunity to use existing and emerging RS techniques in an innovative way to solve a major issue in the regulation and enforcement of the waste sector.