Skip firm director ordered to pay £22,000
The Environment Agency has said that the director of a skip company has been ordered to pay £22,000 for operating an illegal waste site for over a year.
Director Benjamin Lemmon, 37, pleaded guilty to the charge at Norwich Magistrates court on 29 September.
The Agency said that the company, Skippy Industries, based near Kings Lynn, Norfolk, stockpiled old refrigerators, mattresses, rubble and other mixed waste outside, where it risked contaminating the nearby River. The site was only permitted to store and treat waste indoors.
The Agency said that Mr Lemmon admitted he knew he should have sought an amended permit to allow him to lawfully extend the site but said he couldn’t afford it.
Senior environment officer Scott Cunnington at the Environment Agency said: “We hope securing this criminal conviction of a waste operator serves as a wake-up call to other businesses and a reminder that they must stay within the conditions and boundaries outlined by their permits.”
Eunomia brands straw ban ‘missed opportunity’
The head of environmental policy and economics at environmental consultancy, Eunomia, has said that the straw and stirrer ban is a “missed opportunity”.
The ban, which came into effect on 1 October, followed a consultation last year which showed strong support for the ban, however its launch, which was originally planned for April, was postponed because of the pandemic.
Dr Chris Sherrington said: “It’s good to see the government hasn’t forgotten this problem while it also deals with a global pandemic. There is however a missed opportunity here – because it’s not just single-use plastics that cause problems, and a likely effect of the ban in many cases will simply be a switch to single-use items made of other materials.
“As a society we have developed a wasteful habit of over-consumption and should be looking to move away from single-use items as far as possible be they made of plastic, paper, wood or any other material”.
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Powerfuel says it will offset EfW carbon
The director of Powerfuel claims the company’s proposed energy from waste (EfW) plant at Portland in Dorset would be the “UK’s first” carbon neutral facility.
Powerfuel has committed to offsetting carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) from the operation of the facility.
This commitment will include a minimum financial contribution of £3 million across the lifetime of the plant, ring-fenced for activities that reduce greenhouse gases. The contribution will go towards strategies to offset carbon emissions or fund other activities that reduce emissions.
Steve McNab, director of Powerfuel, said: “We believe that it is important that the facility always operates as carbon neutral.
“This is the era of climate emergency and it falls on waste infrastructure developers to look closely at the impact that their activities have”.
