A Polish “mafia” has been burning British trash which it was paid millions to recycle, according to the UK's Telegraph daily, amid reports of a spate of suspicious landfill fires in Poland.

The daily reported that the UK annually sends to Poland 12,000 tonnes of recyclable plastic.

But instead of recycling it, the plastic is being set alight and Poland’s “trash mafia” has been making millions of zloty in the process, the paper reported.

Karol Wójcik of a Polish waste management employers union was cited by the Telegraph as saying that the lack of a minimum price for recyclable plastic waste was at the root of the problem.

He said the choice is between disposing of waste at proper recycling centres, which is expensive, or illegal burning, which costs the about the same as a box of matches, the Telegraph reported.

The government earlier this year promised a crackdown on the “garbage mafia”. (vb)

Source: IAR, PAP