Aberystwyth-based Sundorne Products (Llanidloes) Ltd pleaded guilty to a charge brought by the Environment Agency Wales of keeping controlled waste on a site without benefit of a waste management licence.
The offence, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, related to a routine Agency inspection of the company’s licensed site at Rhymney, near Caerphilly, which revealed “several thousand refrigerator units being illegally stored on adjacent land”.
The Agency said: “On being informed of the offence the company continued to illegally store the refrigerators for a further six months without making any effort to comply with Agency requirements.”
Commenting after the case, the Agency’s senior environment officer, Paul Molloy, said: “”In order to protect the environment and human health, companies and individuals intending to store, handle and treat waste must obtain a waste management licence. This sets out what features and procedures must be in place.
“Operating a waste site without such a licence is both illegal and highly irresponsible and the Agency takes any instance of this very seriously,” he added.
Sundorne also incurred costs of £1,871 in the case last week at Blackwood Magistrates Court.
Guilty
Last week’s case is not the first time Sundorne has been fined over a waste matter. Back in January 2004, the Environment Agency reported that “Sundorne Products (Llanidloes) Ltd, trading as Evans Logistics”¦ pleaded guilty at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court to one charge relating to them depositing waste on land which was not in accordance with a waste management licence.”
That case involved the company’s failure to check that its contractor ““ Knighton-based Industrial Plastics recyclers ““ had a proper waste management licence in place to treat waste foam and plastic from fridges during October and November 2002. Sundorne was fined £10,000, with £989 costs, for the offence.
From Let’s Recycle