David Alcock is a senior environmental consultant specialising in waste permitting and regulatory compliance.
Scrap metal giant EMR was sentenced at Warwickshire crown court on Friday (December 19) after pleading guilty to safety failings at the Kingsbury site. The court heard how William Ward, 56, from Handsworth, Sheffield, was killed when part of a 33-tonne metal barge he was dismantling collapsed on top of him in October 2011. The…
Lincolnshire-based metal recycler BW Riddle has been fined £70,000 and ordered to pay £18,000 in costs after one of its workers suffered broken ribs in an incident at the firm’s Bourne site in February 2013. Lincolnshire Crown Court heard on December 22 that the 49-year-old worker was carrying out maintenance on the firm’s sloping conveyor…
Glasgow based waste management firm, CMI Demolition Limited, received a £16,000 fine at Airdrie Sheriff Court yesterday (31 December) after the company failed to ensure the proper disposal of waste from their facility between March and June 2011. The company, which operates a waste transfer station on Clydeholm Road, Glasgow, knowingly allowed unlicensed contractors from…
Kier was fined £160,000 for safety failings yesterday (January 8) after an employee suffered ‘life-changing injuries’ at a household waste recycling centre in Essex. The 29-year-old man, who does not wish to be named, was crushed between a skip loader truck and a skip when he was preparing for a pick-up at the then May…
Environment Agency Consults on New Rules to Reduce Fires at Combustible Waste Sites Plans to change the permitting rules for sites handling combustible material such as wood waste and refuse derived fuels have been outlined by the Environment Agency, in a bid to quell the ‘unacceptable’ number of fires involving waste. The Agency action comes…
EU‑Backed Project Advances Recycled Plastics for Automotive Manufacturing We have all seen the ever growing use of plastics in vehicles which is balanced by an ever reducing amount of metal. Plastics have never offered the values to justify their removal, sorting and baling but times are changing. A Lincolnshire based plastics recycler, Luxus Limited has…
A sand and gravel supplier has been ordered to pay around £250,000 after exceeding by almost 19 times the storage limit on its waste licence. Rory J Holbrook Ltd admitted at Norwich Crown Court operating a facility at Blofield, Norfolk, without the necessary permits. The company was fined £30,000, and ordered to pay costs of…
Wood recyclers are to lobby to change rules limiting the amount of time that waste wood destined for biomass burning can be stored, arguing that a three month limit is unlikely to prevent fires in the sector. The Environment Agency last month launched a consultation into changes to standard permitting rules for the storage of…
Slick organised criminals are targeting ‘isolated’ landowners in order to dump huge quantities of illegal waste, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has warned. The association argued that many criminal ringleaders have ‘a very legitimate front’ – meaning it is difficult to tell whether operators are genuine. It follows a notice from the Environment…
Kent Firms Fined for Illegal Waste Disposal on Medway Flood Plain Two Kent companies have been ordered to pay a total of £44,294 for illegal waste disposal on flood plain near the River Medway. In action brought by the Environment Agency, construction firm Fastrac Contractors and Utilities Ltd was found guilty in its absence of…