Grove Environmental (Recycling) Ltd. pleaded guilty to its involvement in causing a waste exporter to fail to notify the Environment Agency of shipments containing mixed household waste destined for China.
Grove were fined £4,000 and ordered to pay £4,004 costs. The prosecution followed after a six-month long investigation by the Environment Agency.
Grove Environmental, based in Mexborough, South Yorkshire, has contracts with a number of companies to manage and recycle waste, including waste that is originally collected from local authority household recycling bins.
The company was asked by a company, Mark Lyndon International BV, to supply recovered paper for recycling in China. However, in error, Grove supplied mixed municipal waste. One of their drivers loaded municipal waste instead of waste paper.
John Burns, Environment Agency Ports Project Manager at the Environment Agency said: "Under the waste export regulations, separately sorted waste such as paper and card are classed as ‘green list’. That means that as long as the shipment consists of just one single unmixed material the Environment Agency normally would not need to be notified about these wastes.
"Mixed municipal waste, however, is treated differently under the EU Waste Shipment Regulation which means that the Environment Agency needs to be notified and approve of the shipment before it can go abroad. This is because sending unsorted waste to other countries potentially puts people and the environment at risk if it's not dealt with and recycled properly."
Although Mark Lyndon International BV had the responsibility to notify the Environment Agency of these shipments, Grove had made an error and caused Mark Lyndon International BV to commit the offence.
In August 2005, Environment Agency officers examined 10 shipping containers at Southampton Docks which were found to contain bales of mixed household rubbish and waste including used nappies, bin bags, broken glass, plastic food containers and food waste. Maggots and flies were also present in many of the containers that were examined.
The waste was originally described as paper destined to be exported to China for recycling. However, the officers who examined the waste believed it to be illegal and detained the containers at the dockside.