Firms fined £113,500 following illegal waste investigation
The site at Bardykes Bing, located between Cambuslang and Blantyre, is operated by Doonin Plant Limited. They pled guilty last year to disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health and were fined £8,000, but the Lord Advocate appealed this on the grounds that the sentence was unduly lenient and yesterday (August 3), the Appeal Court increased the fine to £90,000.
Five other companies also pled guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court, on various dates, to depositing controlled waste on the site when no waste management licence was in force: C.E.P. Demolitions Limited – fined £7,500 on September 29 2009; JCJ (Demolition and Construction) Limited – fined £2,500 on February 15 2010; George Hunter (Demolishers) Limited – fined £6,000 on March 4 2010; E. Nicholson & Sons (Metals) Limited – fined £2,250 on March 16 2010; St Andrews Demolition & Construction Limited – fined £2,250 on March 16 2010. And, one further company pled guilty to failing to provide SEPA with waste transfer notes for waste sent to the site, with Enviroclean (Scotland) Limited being fined £3,000 on November 25 2009.
The decision to increase the fine for Doonin Plant Limited was welcomed by SEPA's acting director of operations, Tom Inglis, who claimed it better reflected the “seriousness” of the case and added:
“Waste offences in Scotland are a problem, and one that SEPA is determined to tackle through operations such as this. The operation that brought these seven companies to court is one example of the kind of work we are doing, as is our work to reduce the number of fly-tipped tyres in the West of Scotland, which is already showing good results.”
Change at the top for environCom
Peterborough-based environCom, which operates what it says is the UK's largest WEEE reprocessing facility at Grantham in Lincolnshire, has announced the departure of its founder and chief executive, Joseph Quigley.
Mr Quigley, who has left the role for personal reasons, has been replaced by Sean Feeney. Mr Feeney has 23 years experience in the retail and logistics sector, first with supermarket giant Tesco Plc and latterly with DSGi Group – a company environCom signed a five-year rolling contract with to deal with all of its electronic waste in 2008 (see letsrecycle.com story). At DSGi, Mr Feeney was group supply chain director, with responsibility for over 3,500 people across 11 countries and also implemented an environmental WEEE strategy across the group.
environCom chairman, David Simpson, paid tribute to Mr Quigley's contribution to the company, and welcomed Mr Feeney to the fold. “The appointment of Sean is a strong indication of
the increasing professionalism that is driving the customer requirements throughout the waste recycling sector, and of the electrical and electronic waste recycling industry in particular,” he said. “Sean has a breadth of experience in the field of operations and logistics and has been instrumental in the successful delivery of cost reductions and service delivery of some of the largest retailers in the UK. He also has a strong track record in the successful delivery of company strategic plans and financial performance.”
LARAC issues response to Welsh bag charging consultation
In its response to the WAG's consultation on the charging plans, which would involve a seven pence levy being introduced from spring 2011 (see letsrecycle.com story), LARAC claimed that, due to the potential for them to be composted either at home or via kerbside collection, paper bags should not be subject to the levy, explaining that: “Plastic carrier bags are more prevalent as wind blown litter and should therefore be the target of the charge.”
The body also advocated a higher charge of 15 pence per bag, rather than the seven pence proposed by the WAG, in a bid to provide for increased costs of bag production as fewer were produced. And, it warned that the enforcement of the regulations could increase councils' workload, claiming: “With such a wide range of outlets, policing this legislation could place a massive burden on already over stretched enforcement officers.”
Northern Ireland begins repatriation of waste to the Republic
Officials from the Northern Ireland Environment Agency today (August 4) began the repatriation of thousands of tonnes of waste originally from the Republic of Ireland that was illegally deposited in Northern Ireland.
The operation involves the movement of around 250,000 tonnes of waste which was illegally deposited in Northern Ireland over a period of several years, and comes as the result of a 2007 ‘roadmap' agreement between the two countries and a later June 2009 framework agreement which agreed measures for dealing with sites containing waste from the Republic. It began at a site at Slattinagh, Garrison, County Fermanagh, which contains an estimated 4,500 tonnes of household-type waste from Cork and Wexford. When the waste at Slattinagh is removed, officials will then begin work on a second site which is located near Trillick, County Tyrone and contains around 10,000 tonnes of waste, with a further 18 sites to follow.
Commenting on the operation, Northern Irish environment minister, Edwin Poots, said: “This operation sends out a very strong message to landowners: do not agree to accept waste for infill – no matter how attractive the potential payment, it will never be worth the threat to your property and finances when you are caught. We are dealing with the legacy from 10 years ago, when illegal disposal of waste from the Republic was taking place on a large scale. It involved serious criminality with absolutely no regard to the impact on the environment, local communities or our economy.”
Smurfitt Kappa teams up with schools in Birmingham
The children took part in the project, which was led by the ‘Nechells in Bloom' volunteer group – led by resident Veronica Andrews, in a bid to encourage recycling and discourage fly-tipping in the area. The installation of the bin and the production of the floral montage covering were funded by Smurfit Kappa Recycling together with the local paper mill Smurfit Kappa SSK, in Mount Street, where all of the paper and card recycled by Birmingham's residents through the blue box scheme and the Smurfit Kappa Recycling banks is taken for reprocessing.
Dave Cowing, commercial manager for Smurfit Kappa Recycling in Birmingham, said: “We were only too pleased to help Veronica with this community project and are delighted with the end result which is already attracting a lot of positive attention! Anyone using this new paper bank to recycle their paper and card is helping to reduce the Nechells carbon footprint because the contents end up at the Smurfit Kappa paper mill just 400 metres away where they are used to make new packaging materials.”
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