Site Serv Ltd, which was based in the Vale of Glamorgan but is now in administration, was prosecuted at Cardiff Crown Court on November 4 after pleading guilty to two separate waste offences in 2012.
The first offence involved the illegal transport of three containers of waste to Breda in the Netherlands in December 2009. The waste was described as ‘baled soft mixed paper’ but was found by inspectors to also include mixed plastics and cans.
The Environment Agency’s International Waste Shipments Team was ‘made aware’ that the waste had been shipped from the Vale Business Park in Llandow and had been sourced from Site Serv.
Site Serv Ltd was fined £6,000 for the transport of waste without notification, as outlined under section 19(2)(a) of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007.
Indonesia
The company was also prosecuted for attempting to transport 11 containers of mixed unsorted municipal waste including plastics, wood and green waste, to Jakarta in Indonesia in January 2010, for which it was ordered to pay £5,000 under the TSWR regulations.
According to Natural Resources Wales – the body which replaced the Environment Agency in Wales in April 2013 – the containers were discovered across three separate inspections by Environment Agency officers at Southampton Docks and Cardiff Docks.
Of the eight containers opened at Southampton during the first inspection on January 18 2010, one was empty, two were found to contain clean, baled cardboard, and five held ‘contaminated’ household waste.
A further five contaminated containers were found on a second inspection at Southampton on January 20, with two more discovered during an inspection at Cardiff on January 22.
Commingled
Both offences were described by Natural Resources Wales to involve ‘commingled’ waste.
Richard O’Neill, operations manager and director of Site Serv Ltd at the time, was interviewed under caution following the discoveries in February 2010 – and accepted that the business was ‘not as aware’ of the TSWR in as much detail as it should be.
At a trial of issue, His Honour Judge David Wynn Morgan confirmed there was “no evidence” the offences had been committed deliberately” but that there had been a “high degree” of negligence.
The Court awarded costs to Natural Resources Wales to the sum of £4,000, and also ordered Site Serv Ltd to pay a victim surcharge of £15.
Motivation
Following the sentencing, John Harrison, environment manager at Natural Resources Wales, claimed the motivation behind the crime had been financial.
Mr Harrison said: “We hope the outcome of this case will send out a positive message to the waste industry, Natural Resources Wales will not tolerate those who seek to profit by breaking the law, harming local communities or damaging the environment.
“The motivation behind the crime was financial. There is a worldwide market for good quality recyclable material, but this shouldn’t be abused as a way to try and dispose of general waste.
“It is essential that we take action in such cases to protect people and the environment, as well as safeguarding the market place for legitimate operators.”
Administrator for Site Serv Ltd Barry Mitchell, of Barry Mitchell & Co, confirmed to letsrecycle.com that the company had pleaded guilty to a “transfrontier shipment offence”.
Mr Mitchell reiterated Judge Morgan’s assertion that the offence was through “negligence rather than deliberate”, and claimed the offences had occurred due to an “inadequate” picking line at the site, which had a technical fault at the time.
He added that company owners had worked to rectify a lack of investment at the plant by installing a new picking line, and that the Court had been “relatively lenient” in sentencing the firm.
Site Serv
Site Serv Ltd was established in 2002 and recycled hazardous waste, plastics, metals and other household waste on behalf of local authorities and businesses.
The company entered administration in March 2014, after two separate fires devastated its Llandow-based facilities in the space of one month last year.
A blaze broke out at Site Serv’s 75,000 tonnes-per-year facility on the Llandow Industrial Estate new Cowbridge on November 5 2013, which forced the company to move all of its operations to its materials recycling facility (MRF) on a nearby site.
However, on November 26 2013 a second fire erupted at the MRF, which destroyed the building and plant machinery (see letsrecycle.com story).
Business operations unaffected by the two fires were transferred over to a separate company within the England Group, SiteServ Recycling Ltd, during February 2014. The move is understood to have secured 80 jobs.
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