The Environment Agency’s failure to listen to tyre recyclers on stack sizes could inadvertently increase the risk of fires on waste sites. This was the message from the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) today as it urged the Agency to amend its controversial Fire Prevention Plan guidance. Currently the Environment Agency is undertaking a periodic…
The falling price of scrap metal is adding to the impact of reduced commodity prices in the local authority sector and causing concerns in the WEEE sector. Local authorities are having to face up to reduced prices for light iron and other metals while some recyclers of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) consider that…
A fatal incident at a Merseyside woodchip factory – described by one HSE inspector as his “most horrific case” – has seen two firms ordered to pay combined costs of £624,000. Portuguese-owned Sonae Industria (UK) Ltd and equipment specialist Valmet Ltd, which took over Metso Ltd in 2013, were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court…
Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is working with recycling company South Wales Wood Recycling Ltd to tackle an ongoing fire at its Newport Dock facility. Fires occurred in mid-November after a number of hotspots within the 18-20,000 tonnes of woodchip waste stored at the site were exposed. An issue of smoke has arisen through the…
Fatal Incident at County Durham Recycling Facility One man has died and another seriously injured following an incident at a recycling facility in County Durham on Saturday (from LetsRecycle.com). Emergency services were called to the Wades Ltd – also known locally as the John Wade Group Ltd – Aycliffe Quarry plant at 12.04pm to reports…
A Manchester waste plastic recycling firm has been fined after an employee’s hand was severed after being dragged into a granulator machine. CP Plastics Limited was prosecuted by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) following an incident at Manchester New Rd, Middleton, Manchester on the 4 March 2015. Manchester Magistrates’ Court heard the employee, who…
The Environment Agency (EA) has confirmed that premises in England producing more than 500kg a year of hazardous waste will no longer have to register. From 1 April, companies will indicate their business name in the consignment note code instead of a premises or exempt code. The changes do not affect Wales, where businesses will…
The director of a waste firm which went into liquidation in 2013 has been ordered to pay £33,000 in fines and costs after having pleaded guilty to breaching an environmental permit for the operation of a site in Bedfordshire. Simon Lupton, director of Wood Recycling Services, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court…
Stephen Weaver was sentenced for an offence relating to the storage, deposit and treatment of mixed waste at a site without an environmental permit. On the 28 January 2016, Shrewsbury Magistrates Court fined the defendant £1,320, ordered him to pay £10,652 in compensation to the Environment Agency, £4,805.63 in costs, along with a…
The owner of a Halifax skip hire firm has been jailed for two years for running an illegal waste site where treated waste wood was also being illegally burned. 65-year-old David Turner, of Farrar Mill Lane in Siddal, was sentenced last week (January 28) at Bradford Crown Court after admitting waste charges brought…