Plastics Recycling Company Pleads Guilty in U.S. District Court

Tulip Corp., a City of Industry, Calif.-based plastics recycling company, has pled guilty to a felony charge of knowingly storing hazardous waste without a permit at its plant in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The maximum penalty for the charge is up to $50,000 per day of violation, a term of probation of 5 years, or both.

The Niagara plant has a product line that is involved in reprocessing and recycling of shredded battery casings into a usable material. Some of the chips processed and recycled by Tulip are contaminated with lead, and therefore were hazardous materials. The scrap plastics are transported to Tulip’s plants by truck.

According to the case, from Oct. 14, 2004, to July 11, 2007, chips contaminated with lead were occasionally stored outside at Tulip. The storage of the chips outside occurred due to breakdowns in the chip reprocessing equipment and a surplus of chips arriving at the company.

On July 11, 2007, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) conducted an inspection at Tulip and observed approximately 80,000 pounds of chips being stored outside.

Samples of the chips were taken by DEC and Tulip, which were analyzed for lead content. All of the samples were above the regulatory threshold for lead, and were therefore hazardous.

The plea was the culmination of an investigation on the part of special agents of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division under the direction of William Lometti, special agent in charge and investigators of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Police, BECI, under the direction of Captain David Bennett.

Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.