Waste management firm SiteServ (now in administration) has been fined £11,000 for illegally exporting waste.
Judge David Wyn Morgan heard the case at Cardiff Crown Court last week (4 November), in which it was revealed that the company had been caught by the Environment Agency Wales (now Natural Resources Wales) illegally exporting three containers of co-mingled waste to the Netherlands in 2009, and trying to export 11 containers to Indonesia in 2010.
The first offence, which occurred between 1 November and 31 December 2009, involved waste from the Vale Business Park Llandow in Crowbridge. Despite being billed as comprising paper, the container also held mixed plastics and cans.
In January 2010, Environment Agency Wales officers found on three separate occasions that the company was trying to illegally export waste out of Europe. They found 11 containers, some of which contained green waste, some mixed household waste, and some dry recyclables.
SiteServ pleaded guilty to the two offences in June 2012, and sentencing was given last week.
'Natural Resources Wales will not tolerate those who seek to profit by breaking the law'
Although judges are being urged to issue harsher penalties to those committing waste crime, the judge ruled that the offence came into being through ‘negligence’ rather than through deliberate actions. As such, he fined the company, now in administration, £6,000 for the first offence and £5,000 for the second. Costs were awarded to Natural Resources Wales to the sum of £4,000.
John Harrison, Environment Manager at Natural Resources Wales, said: “We hope the outcome of this case will send out a positive message to the waste industry. Natural Resources Wales will not tolerate those who seek to profit by breaking the law, harming local communities or damaging the environment.
“The motivation behind the crime was financial. There is a worldwide market for good-quality recyclable material, but this shouldn’t be abused as a way to try and dispose of general waste.
“It is essential that we take action in such cases to protect people and the environment, as well as safeguarding the marketplace for legitimate operators.”
SiteServ background
Set up in 2002, waste management company SiteServ accepted and sorted waste from across Wales, as well as from the north-west and south-west of England, employing around 200 people.
Following a raft of controversies, including a court case on illegal dumping (in which the brothers Nigel and Phillip England, who owned SiteServ, were cleared) in 2013 and two waste site fires in the same year, the company went into administration on 11 March 2014.
Business operations that were unaffected by the fires were transferred on 1 February 2014 to a separate company, SiteServ Recycling, securing 80 jobs.
Find out more about the fires at SiteServ.
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