We occasionally get reports of fly tipping from the various districts of Somerset. But today we heard the conclusion of a case of fly tipping on an industrial scale.
We reported earlier this year on the way Stowey Quarry was turned into an illegal landfill operation. Businessman Mark Foley, who was supposed to be accepting a limited amount of clean, inert waste. the waste was meant to create bunds and embankments as a waste recovery enterprise. Foley has since been jailed and fined £72,000
Following a 3 year investigation by the Environment Agency more convictions have now been secured. The former limestone quarry near the Chew Valley reservoir was supposed to receive ‘mechanically treated soil substitute’. Instead 2001 tonnes of metal, foam and plastic shreds from end-of-life vehicles were dumped there. The material was sent from Tilbury Docks. There had also been arrangements to send shredded bin bag waste from Wales to the quarry as ‘soil substitute’.
The scam involved European Metal Recycling Ltd, UK Environmental Ltd and its sole director Amar Seth. All admitted to playing a part in using the quarry as a cheap way to dispose of unpermitted waste and save money.
Bristol Crown Court heard that European Metal Recycling Ltd had a deadline to meet. They needed to remove thousands of tonnes of automotive shredded residue from Tilbury Docks. Most of this was earmarked for its waste-to-energy site in Oldbury. But at least 2,001 tonnes of fine shreds, up to 8mm in size, were sent across country to Stowey Quarry. This was done over a period of 16 days during May and June 2016. The loads were deliberately wrongly classified to comply with the quarry’s permit for clean, inert waste.
European Metal Recycling Ltd had sent an auditor who claimed the site was suitable to receive the waste. They also claimed the waste was mixed with sand, stone and soil similar to the material found at Stowey Quarry.
UK Environmental Ltd was fined £28,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £83,000. UK Environmental Ltd further agreed Confiscation figure £7,048.
European Metal Recycling Ltd was fined £400,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £350,000.00. European Metal Recycling further agreed Confiscation figure £32,958.
Speaking after the sentencing Rebecca Kirk of the Environment Agency said: “This is the conclusion of one of the biggest criminal investigations we have conducted in the South West. It has taken many years and forensic analysis of criminal behaviour at many levels in the supply chain.“
A spokesperson for European Metal Recycling Ltd gave a lengthy statement in explanation of their position. This statement has not been made available on their website:
“EMR has pleaded guilty to charges alleging a failure to fulfil its duty of care in sending 1,962 tonnes of shredder waste to a landfill site known as Stowey Quarry in 2016. At the time EMR believed that this site was permitted to receive this material, when in fact it was not. EMR has a strong compliance history and works closely with the Environment Agency on improving standards in the industry. Each year EMR lawfully disposes of some 300,000 tonnes of shredder waste to landfill at a cost of approximately £30 million each year. In this case we acknowledge that our due diligence processes ought to have identified that this site was not permitted to receive the waste we deposited there. This has resulted in a fine for the company. In the proceedings expert evidence was produced and accepted by the court which concluded that, if appropriate regulatory steps had been taken, this site should have been closed by 2015. Had this happened, no offences would have been committed by EMR. Our own compliance audit of the site was carried out 10 days after an Environment Agency visit which had concluded that there had been no permit non-conformances. The site operator was subsequently found guilty of deliberately misleading the Environment Agency as to the nature of activities at the site and sentenced to prison for 27 months. The court accepted that the deposits made at this site by EMR are not likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health; and EMR did not commit these offences deliberately. he Environment Agency’s records indicate that EMR was responsible for only approximately 2% of the waste delivered to this site in 2016. EMR had not used this site before 2016 and stopped using the site as soon as the problem came to light. EMR has comprehensively reviewed and strengthened all policies, procedures and controls relating to the disposal of waste. EMR recognises the importance of maintaining the highest environmental standards and would like to assure all our colleagues, customers and the general public that we continue to work hard to create industry leading recycling processes to achieve this goal.”
European Metal Recycling made an operating profit of £94m in 2016. UK Environmental files filleted accounts and no profit and loss account but had net current assets of over £3million in 2019. The penalties do not reflect the cost of the 3-year investigation and prosecution of these companies, and the directors seem to have got off scot-free. No wonder half the countryside is treated as a rubbish dump.