The fire at an abandoned Telford waste and recycling plant, which raged for nearly a month, has finally been extinguished.
Fire crews finished dismantling the building over the weekend
The fire broke out at around midday on 26 April at the former Greenway Polymers site on Rock Road Ketley, and is said to have involved more than 50,000 tonnes of old RDF waste.
Shropshire fire and rescue service confirmed to letsrecycle.com yesterday (26 May) that crews are preparing to remove appliances from the site although the situation is still being monitored.
Firefighters previously worked to dismantle the structure of the building over the weekend which allowed crews to work to fully extinguish the blaze.
The fire service added that it is now hoping to hand operations over to the Environment Agency.
Greenway Polymers
The plant was previously operated by recycling and RDF exporting company Greenway Polymers, which dissolved in 2018.
However, according to Telford MP Lucy Allen, local residents reported that waste was still going to the site until the time of the fire.
Ms Allen added that residents had long been “concerned” about the hazards of this site and had previously campaigned against it.
In a statement released earlier this month, the MP said: “The authorities appear to be laying the blame at the feet of a company that went into liquidation four years ago. This ignores the fact that the site has been open, operating and used regularly, since that time without a permit.”
“This lovely neighbourhood has been polluted by the operation of an unregulated waste site which the authorities knew about, but it appears did nothing sufficient to prevent.”
It was previously reported by letsrecycle.com that the Environment Agency hadn’t removed the waste due to a “complex legal process”.
Crews are back in attendance at Greenway Polymers in Wellington working alongside on-site staff with the demolition of the building. Great progress is being made and the building is now down.
Thank you for your patience locally so far. pic.twitter.com/AmMkWAZVL7
— Wem Fire Station (@SFRS_Wem) May 22, 2021
Court
The Environment Agency said last week that two men are to appear in court for alleged environmental offences connected to the site (see letsrecycle.com story).
However, the charges against Mark and Jonathan Nicholson from Armagh, Northern Ireland, relate to alleged offences committed between October 2016 and 2017 and “do not directly concern the present incident at the site”.
The pair are listed as directors of the former Greenway Polymers business on Companies House documents.
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
