Natural Resources Wales (NRW) has served an enforcement notice on the owners of bales of waste being stored at Swansea Docks, after months of complaints over their smell.

Environmental Practical Solutions Ltd (EPS), a Swansea-based waste management company that works throughout the UK, has been storing the bales of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) and solid recovered fuel (SRF) in preparation for export to European power stations.

Joe Hale, councillor for St Thomas, the district in which the docks are situated, told the South Wales Evening Post that he had received a number of complaints about the bales over the last six months, particularly about the smell, which impacts on the residents of East Swansea. Hale called the impact of the docks on residents as an “environmental disaster that has to change”.

A spokeswoman for Associated British Ports (ABP), which operates Swansea Docks as well as 20 other ports across the UK, said: “Some RDF material has been in storage longer than expected, and it is currently being removed from the port by EPS.

“ABP is working with EPS to ensure speedy resolution of this matter and expects the material to be cleared in the coming weeks.”

NRW says that it is working with the Port Health Authority and the operator to ensure that the material is maintained in a good condition prior to its removal from the site.

The regulator has also asked EPS to develop management plans to mitigate for any potential impacts to local amenities.

David Morgan, Environment Officer for Natural Resources Wales, said: “We regulate waste sites like this because there is a potential for them to have an impact on the environment and the local community.

“During the summer we inspected the site and found that there was too much waste material, and it had been stored there for too long. Clearly this has led to some problems for local people.

“We have issued an enforcement notice to the operator to remove all material from site. This is ongoing and volumes of waste have reduced significantly during the past three months, but there is more work to be done.”

RDF export

The amount of RDF being exported to mainland Europe has risen rapidly over the past five years. In 2014, exports totalled 2.6 million tonnes, compared to just 0.1 million tonnes in 2010.

A report released in September by the RDF Export Industry Group claimed that there would be virtually no environmental benefit to domestically processing the RDF currently being exported from the UK.

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) issued a call for evidence following the sharp rise in exports, but the group’s report claimed that if the RDF currently exported was instead treated domestically, it would only contribute around 0.5 per cent of total UK electricity generation and around 0.8 per cent to total UK renewable electricity generation.

For more information, you can read Defra’s call for evidence regarding RDF or the RDF Export Industry Group’s ‘Analysis of the Legal, Economic and Environmental Rationales’.