Around 50 employees at waste management and civil engineering company Brickkiln Waste Limited in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, were told on Friday (24 July) that they would be losing their jobs, as the company is entering administration.

The news comes a month after Northern Ireland’s Department of Environment (DOE NI) set a temporary suspension of the firm’s waste license due to its failure to work within its licence conditions at its site in Maydown. It is thought that this breach relates to the storage of baled refuse-derived fuel material ‘awaiting final destination’.

‘Significant breach of licence conditions’

A DOE spokesperson said: “NIEA issued enforcement notices on Brickkiln Waste Ltd’s facility at Maydown Road on 12 and 26 June 2015 due to significant failures of the company to work within its waste licence conditions. The significant failures if not corrected may have a serious impact on the environment and human health.

“The notices required the company to put in place steps to comply with the conditions of its licence by Friday 10 July 2015. During this period NIEA worked with Brickkiln to try and resolve the issues. An inspection of the site on Friday 10 July 2015 identified a continued significant breach of its licence conditions and a further notice was served on Brickkiln suspending the acceptance of all waste. This further notice does not prevent the export of waste from the site and should enable remedial actions to be put in place by 10 August 2015.

“A subsequent inspection on 16 July 2015 established that waste previously accepted at the Company’s Maydown Road site had been redirected to its Heather Road facility in contravention of its licence and NIEA issued a notice requiring the company to cease accepting it. This has not prevented the company from operating at this site and NIEA is continuing to work with the company in order to resolve the outstanding issues.”

The breaches were exacerbated by further problems earlier this month, when 10 appliances and almost 50 firefighters were involved in tackling a fire at the Heather Road site. Furthermore, it is understood Bickkiln was recently involved in a dispute with Derry City and Strabane District Council over contract payments.

The council reportedly stopped paying Brickkiln to collect and dump the city’s waste after it alleged that third party waste was being incorrectly labelled municipal waste. This meant that the council was paying to dispose of waste that, it claims, it was not responsible for. All of these allegations were denied by Brickkiln Ltd.

A spokesperson for Derry City and Strabane District Council explained: “Following NIEA’s suspension of the company’s waste acceptance services on 10 July, the council has been working closely with Brickkiln, NIEA and other councils to assist in resolving ongoing waste processing issues.

“Prior to this cessation of service, the council was forced to suspend payment to the company as Brickkiln had failed to fulfill contractual obligations as set down in contract specification. Where invoices have been received by the council demonstrating that the company has met their agreed terms, these invoices have been paid in full.”

They added that the council is legally obliged to adhere to all legislation in terms of “the appropriate management of waste” and said it was “committed” to working with all involved to resolve the matter.

At the time of publication Brickkiln Waste Limited had no comment.

Brickkiln background

Said to be the ‘leading provider in waste management and civil engineering in the north west area’, Brickkiln has been operating since 1991 and offers a range of services, including: waste disposal; skip service; recycling; bulk haulage; transfer station facility management; demolition work; and asbestos management.

The company had been part of a consortium preferred for Northern Ireland’s North West Region Waste Management Group (NWRWMG) residual waste contract, but the project was abandoned last year after the group identified that a ‘major’ residual waste treatment project would be ‘difficult to plan adequately to ensure that future waste management obligations [will be] met under the EU Waste Framework Directive’.

Find out more about waste management laws and regulations.