Environment Agency staff have discovered that an illegal landfill site in County Durham was home to asbestos material.
Having found the substance at Hanginstone Quarry, where they collaborated in an investigation with Durham Police, employees called in specialist contractors to remove the waste before excavations were refilled.
The investigation is now set to focus on any additional waste that is discovered in the area, in an attempt to trace its origins.
In related news, statistics published as part of the Eurostat Key Figures on Europe study recently revealed that Ireland sends almost three times the European average amount of waste to landfill.
This suggests that the country's efforts to introduce recycling initiatives and its success in reusing more materials than ever before do not yet appear to have had a significant effect.
It was also reported that Ireland's waste production rose by 56 per cent between 1995 and 2006.
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