UK Firm Fined for Scrap Tire Offenses

A Hartlepool, UK, recycling facility was fined £10,000 earlier this month by the Hartlepool Magistrates’ court after pleading guilty to four tire waste offences.

Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd, of Mainsforth Terrace, Hartlepool, was fined £2,500 for each offence and ordered to pay £5,000 towards costs to the Environment Agency, which brought the case.

Lee Fish, prosecuting for the EA, told the court how Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd had been storing, sorting and shredding tires on its site at Mainsforth Terrace since February 2002. However the site did not hold a waste management license, and its operations did not fall within the terms of an exemption that could allow for the storage of tires.

In 2002, the company was contacted by the Environment Agency and told that its site required a waste management license. Niramax submitted its initial application in July 2002, but the relevant application fee was not included and evidence of financial provision, which is required for a license to be granted, was not provided.

The application was not actively pursued by the company and on Jan. 5, 2005, it was informed that its license application had been rejected, and that the keeping and treating of waste without a license was an offence. The Environment Agency wrote a letter to Niramax on the next month asking them to remove all waste material from the site.

An EA officer visited the site that summer and saw an estimated 17,000 tires were being stored on site along with around 850 cubic meters of tire crumb, shredded and part shredded tires. Equipment to shred and crumb tires was also found on the site.

A notice was served requiring removal of all the tires by Sept. 3, 2005, but when officers returned to inspect the site on 8 September, waste tires and equipment were still on site.

Transfer notes seized from the company revealed that 327 loads of waste tires had been received between May 3 and August 3, 2005 and 150 loads between August 4 and September 3, 2005 when the company should have been removing the tires.

Environment Agency officers returned to the site on March 21, 2006 with representatives of Hartlepool Borough Council, the Health and Safety Executive and Cleveland Fire Brigade. Safety concerns were expressed after the size of the stockpile was found to have increased to approximately 128,000 tires.

Fish told the court that Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd had saved £4,370 by not being properly licensed between 2002 and 2006.

Speaking after the case, an Environment Agency spokesman said: "Waste management licenses set out the conditions that waste firms must follow to prevent pollution. Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd failed to get a license and continued to bring tires into the Mainsforth Terrace site, against our repeated instructions.

"The size of stockpiles eventually became a safety concern. Fortunately, pressure from our close working relationships with Cleveland Fire Brigade, Hartlepool Borough Council and the HSE meant the operations were cleared before an incident occurred. The operation is now regulated at a nearby licensed facility."