A fire at a plastic waste site near Stoke-on-Trent was started deliberately, investigators from Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service have announced.
Fire crews were called to the site at Redhills Lane early on Sunday (5 February) morning. The site was operated by Hanbury Plastics Recycling (Stoke) Ltd, according to the Environment Agency.
A picture from the Milton site issued by Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Crews have remained on-site throughout the week to continue to tackle the fire whilst investigations into the cause were carried out. 53 fire fighters tackled the blaze at its height.
According to a statement issued by the Fire Service yesterday evening (9 February), the investigation – which was conducted in conjunction with Staffordshire Police – has found that the blaze was started deliberately.
Fire Investigation Officer Ian Broadhead said: “We have worked closely with Staffordshire Police during the investigation and concluded that the fire was started deliberately.
“The Service will now be helping police with their investigation and further enquiries.”
The Environment Agency has described the site as an illegal waste site, after claiming that an environmental permit has never been issued for operations at the location.
Environment Agency
The Agency also claimed that it had issued legal notices to clear waste from the site, which had held up to 10,000 tonnes of material at its peak.
An estimated 1,500 tonnes of waste was held at the site at the time of the fire, the Agency has claimed.
Hanbury, which had been operating at the Redhills Road site near Milton since 2011 was placed into administration in 2015 with Manchester-based asset recovery firm CG&Co instructed to oversee the administration of the company.
The facility had been set up with the support of £440,000 in capital funding from the European Regional Development Fund, which was secured through WRAP and used to finance the procurement of sorting equipment for use at the Milton site.
According to a case study published by WRAP, the site had been capable of sorting seven streams of polymer – film, clear and coloured HDPE, clear and coloured PET, coloured polypropylene, and polystyrene. Sorted polymers were mainly traded to UK processors, the case study claims.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
