The Welsh regulator said that the company has been ordered to pay a fine of £64,000 for environmental offences after appearing at Newport Crown Court for sentencing yesterday morning (26 June 2025). The company was also ordered to pay £30,000 costs and a victim surcharge of £190, NRW added.
The verdict comes after a “significant” fire broke out at a recycling plant on the Penallta industrial estate in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly in September 2021, NRW explained.
It stated that the company pleaded guilty to three separate charges of breaching its environmental permit. NRW outlined that the court heard that the stockpile of waste on the site exceeded the maximum 4 metres storage height identified in the fire prevention mitigation plan. The height of the waste made it difficult for firefighters to safely extinguish and segregate the hotspots within the stockpile of waste, the regulator noted.
Due to the volume of water required to manage and extinguish the fire, the site’s drainage interceptor became overwhelmed, NRW said. This led to contaminated water running off the site, causing large amounts of waste oil to wash through into the local watercourses, it added.
Fire
The regulator explained that a large-scale fire broke out at the S L Recycling plant on 1 September 2021 after a lithium-iron battery exploded when a vehicle shell was crushed. It said that “the fire spread to the primary stock pile of scrap metal within the yard, leading to approximately 150 tonnes of recycling material including, plastic, foam, electrical items, lead batteries, and gas cylinders to catch fire, alongside machinery”.
NRW added that the fire was attended by the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and took until the afternoon of 2 September to get under control.
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