AWS Eco Plastics fined 23,000 for dust and litter

AWS Eco Plastics has been fined £23,000 and ordered to pay £5,600 costs for allowing dust and litter to scatter outside its plastics recycling plant near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire.

The facility first opened in 2008 and is one of the largest of its kind in Europe, capable of handling 100,000 tonnes of bottles a year (see letsrecycle.com story). Part of the facility is currently being rebuilt following a fire in August 2009 which will increase its capacity to 140,000 tonnes a year (see letsrecycle.com story).

Lincoln Magistrate's Court was told the waste escaped at the site over seven months and the company failed to comply with an enforcement notice issued by the Environment Agency.

Mrs Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting for the Agency, described falling dust and waste labels as ‘looking like snow' at the company's site on Caenby Corner Industrial Estate at Hemswell Cliff.

James Finch, an Environment Agency officer, first visited the site in December 2008 when a worker was advised to turn off the machine feeding label waste into a skip and not to turn it on again until a cover had been fitted. He sent a compliance report to the company, noting a breach of their permit to store and treat waste.

The site was much cleaner the next day and the skip was covered, magistrates were told, but there was still a need to enclose the label disposal operation. Three weeks later a neighbouring site once again was covered in dust and litter, although not as badly, said Mrs McDonald, and a further compliance report was sent to the company.

Magistrates heard that on 4 February 2009, following a further complaint, Mr Finch once again went to the site and was told by the site manager that there was a problem with material escaping from a hole at the top of a silo because it hadn't been installed properly.

Mr Finch discovered that there was shredded label-like material in an interceptor and in vegetation along the Black Dyke watercourse for about 20m. He once again sent a compliance report to the company noting the breach of permit.

Enforcement

Mrs McDonald told the court that the officer sent an enforcement notice to the company on February 6 to clear up neighbouring sites, the interceptor tank and Black Dyke. The company was also instructed to enclose the label treatment area and to build a solid boundary wall by February 27 in order to comply with its Environmental Permit conditions.

But the work was not complete by that date and there was still plastic flake and dust and label waste on a neighbouring property. As there had been some problems with the contractors the officer agreed to extend the notice for one week but two weeks later there was still dust and litter on nearby sites.

Owner of one neighbouring site said he had been told several times that the problem would be sorted out but nothing ever happened.

Plastics blowing from Eco Plastics onto his site regularly contaminated chemicals used in a dip tank which had to be replaced at £80 a time, he told the Environment Agency.

Site manager of AWS Eco Plastics, Alex Coope, said the dust problem had not been envisaged and contractors had let them down.

He said the site had not been fully operational until November or December 2008 and it was only when production levels were increased that the system could not cope.

There were further complaints in May 2009 and when the Environment Agency's officer returned to the site he saw label and flake blowing up from ground level over the wall onto a neighbouring site, said Mrs McDonald. There was litter spilling from bags stored on the Eco Plastics site and litter blowing around the site. A week later the situation had not changed.

On July 31, more than seven months after the first Agency visit, there was still dust and litter around and off the site and a further enforcement notice was issued. This was withdrawn later when there was a fire.

Managers

In mitigation Mr Jonathan Dunkley said that the company had appointed two new managers in order to try and improve operations on site. Since the fire the company has invested in new infrastructure as well. The company pleaded guilty to the charges brought against it.

After the hearing Environment Officer, James Finch, said: “We always try to work with businesses to make sure they comply with conditions in their environmental permit and we gave Eco Plastics numerous opportunities to clean up its operation.

“The effective running of a nearby business was affected by the activities of this company.

“The company failed to respond to advice from ourselves and continued for seven months to cause a nuisance to neighbouring sites.

“The company breached three conditions of their permit in failing to control emissions of dusts, fibres and particulates which were likely to cause pollution, harm to human health, or serious detriment to the community and failed to take measures to prevent the escape of litter. They also failed to comply with an enforcement notice.”

AWS

Speaking after the case, AWS managing director Jonathan Short said: “As a company dedicated to the business of sustainability and helping to protect the environment it is deeply regrettable that these incidents occurred over the prolonged period that they did.

“Due to the recycling process we operate at our facility in Hemswell we saved over 80,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions during 2009. The escapes of dust and litter were due to design and installation failures within the material transfer process; various plant modifications reduced the frequency of escape but during certain production conditions occasional escapes still occurred.

“Following the fire last year which destroyed the whole sorting line we have invested close to £1m on a totally redesigned material transfer and dust extraction system and are absolutely confident that no similar escapes will occur in the future.”