An ongoing court case, involving a waste management scheme run by the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU, called Green MT, has given a new twist to the benefits of non-compliance with laws and regulations.

According to testimony given, it appears that Mepa, the regulator of the waste management sector and dispenser of operating licences to waste recovery schemes, allowed Green MT to operate without a licence for a number of months in 2010-2011 and this despite it being common knowledge that the said scheme was in serious financial difficulties, owing money to a number of waste collectors operating on its behalf.

It also transpired during the same court case that the responsibility for waste collection of a significant number of local councils was handed over to Green MT without these councils’ knowledge and for which the Green MT scheme pocketed handsomely.

However, the most serious revelation made in court was that Green MT was the recipient of payments made by the then administration to help it overcome its financial difficulties. If, as is alleged in these court reports carried in the media, these payments were made they were abusive and, probably, go counter to EU State aid regulations.

Forming part of recognised waste recovery scheme, GreenPak Coop, which prides itself on strict compliance with its operating parameters and obligations, and in the light of what has transpired in court, I may perhaps be forgiven for asking three questions:.

Would the European Commission consider a €670,000 handout to amount to State aid and, hence, totally unacceptable? Did such handouts breach all accepted principles of fair trading and, as a result, place any other compliant waste recovery  scheme at a commercial disadvantage? Would any other recognised waste recovery scheme qualify for the same level of assistance were it to find itself in the same financial difficulties?

These revelations make one seriously wonder whether non-compliance does actually pay.