In June, the business was found guilty of two breaches of the law in May and June 2015.
During an Environment Agency (EA) investigation, officers prevented seven 25-tonne containers destined for China at Felixstowe Port from onward export.
Despite being labelled as waste paper, the containers included soiled nappies, food packaging, bags of faeces and plastic bottles.
During the trial, jurors heard how Biffa used two brokers to arrange the export to two paper mills in Shenzhen and Guangdong on the South China Sea coast.
The jury did not accept Biffa’s version of events that consignments leaving its depot in Edmonton four years ago complied with the law because they comprised of waste paper.
Biffa was also ordered to pay costs of £240,000 and a further £9,912 under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA).
Malcolm Lythgo, head of waste at the EA, said: “Illegal waste export blights the lives and environment of those overseas. We continue to treat illegal waste exports as a priority and will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action against those found to break the rules.”
Biffa strongly contests the case and has begun a formal process of appeal.
In a statement it said: “This case related to contamination levels in seven containers of mixed paper that were due for export to China over four years ago. At that time China was a core market for UK exported materials for recycled paper and cardboard, and Biffa was a key supplier to some of the largest, best-invested cardboard mills in China.
“All our materials were regularly inspected by customs in China and by a Chinese Inspectorate regime based in the UK prior to shipping and all buyers conducted pre-checks before shipping to confirm that the materials were 98.5% pure paper, which was the accepted industry standard.”
Biffa will face separate charges of exporting 42 containers of waste collected from households to India and Indonesia between November 2018 and February 2019. A trial is due to take place at Wood Green Crown Court in June 2020.
All UK waste exports must be in accordance with Waste Shipments Regulation and the EA has a system of inspections in place to verify compliance.
Between 2018 and 2019, the EA prevented the illegal export of 12,690 tonnes of unsuitable waste.
