A 64-year-old man has been fined £4,500 for operating a waste recycling site in Telford without an environmental permit.
According to a statement from the Environment Agency, Brian Anthony Woods was also ordered to pay £7,101.65 prosecution costs and a £120 surcharge. He was sentenced at Telford Magistrates Court on 27 January.
An aerial view of the Granville Road site in Telford
After the hearing, Environment Agency officer Steve Cawthorne commented: “Waste crime is a serious offence with tough penalties as it can damage the environment and undermine those who operate legally.
“Storing such large amounts of waste also poses a serious risk to the environment and human health.
“This case sends out a clear message that we will not hesitate to take action to ensure the protection of the environment and avoid harm to health.”
Woods was a director of Granex Recycling Ltd(Company number 07660308), which operated the site on Granville Road and was dissolved in April 2017.
Prior to its dissolution the company said it processed waste plastics and produced pellets for re-use.
Uncontrolled storage
In a statement, the Agency said its officers inspected the site in December 2016 following information that unauthorised waste activity was taking place.
“The illegal and uncontrolled storage of waste gave considerable cause for concern”
They claim to have found a building containing plant equipment and plastics in various stages of processing, as well as scrap plastic items stored in large haphazard stockpiles of up to three to four metres in height.
They are also said to have found a large compound, filled with used plastic window frame pieces, which limited access onto the site.
Exemptions from the requirement to hold a permit for the waste handling activities taking place at the site had been registered, but the inspection revealed the activities were “not being carried out to the environmental standards required”.
Little reduction
In January 2017, the Environment Agency says it told Woods to stop waste management activities, and later that month he put forward a remediation plan.
However, a follow-up inspection showed there was still a significant amount of waste, with little reduction in the amount of waste or improvement in how it was stored.
A notice was served under Section 59(1) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, requiring the company to remove specified waste by June 2017.
When officers visited again in June, they said they found no change in waste quantity or how it was stored.
In August 2017, Agency officers returned once more to the site but found it locked. They said large amounts of plastic waste and wooden pallets could still be seen.
A further visit in March 2019 revealed 80% of the waste seen in 2016 remained on site.
And, the statement from the Agency added that “since the last hearing in August 2019, when sentence was deferred for Woods to clear the waste on site, around 500 cubic meters of waste had been removed and around 6000 cubic meters of waste was still on site”.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
