UK Firm Fined for Illegal Scrap Shipment

Mountstar Metal Corp., a scrap recycler based in the United Kingdom, has been fined for ignoring regulations when shipping material to Belgium. The company, as well as its director, Michael Oppenheimer, reportedly ignored regulations and were fined £3400 (about US$6,500). Mountstar is a subsidiary of Amalgamated Metal Corp.

The movement of the waste overseas needs to comply with European and UK Regulations which includes notifying competent authorities and gaining their consent and having a certificate of satisfaction from the Environment Agency in respect of any financial guarantee or equivalent insurance.

The Public Waste Agency of Flanders notified the Environment Agency’s Transfrontier Shipment National Service of its concerns over a shipment of solder dross waste to a company called Metallo Chimique in Belgium without the necessary Notification or Movement Tracking form.

Metallo had previously taken legal shipments from Mountstar but on this occasion because the paperwork was missing they asked for copies to be faxed over. These were sent to Flanders but two of the documents raised suspicion as they appeared to have been altered.

According to a release by the UK’s Environment Agency, Mountstar’s shipping manager said that he had sent the shipment without the right paperwork and falsified paperwork later. He also admitted trying to hide documents from the agency officers. He said he was not instructed to send the waste without paperwork or without a certificate of satisfaction and that it was his own decision.