The pledge comes in the wake of the prosecution last week of SITA Tyre Recycling Ltd at Wolverhampton magistrates court. The company pleaded guilty to five environmental offences before the court in a prosecution by the Agency and were fined a total of 28,5000 and ordered to pay costs of 15,392.
The first offence related to a fire which took place at SITA's tyre incinerator in Ettingshall on January 15 2000 due, said the Agency, to “inadequate maintenance of a safety device and failure to follow the company's own procedures for ensuring that it would operate effectively”. This had resulted in the Agency serving a Prohibition Notice at the time.
Three further offences also concerned the tyre incinerator. They related to breaches of a limit on the amount of dust (particulate matter) it could release due to a failed filter bag on 4 and 6 April 2000, which, said the Agency, “was clearly indicated by SITA's own continuous monitoring equipment and to which the company failed to respond”.
Finally, a further offence concerned the illegal storage of waste tyres on another local site in December 1999. Ten HGV trailers filled with approximately 10,000 tyres from the SITA site were found on a site which did not have a waste management licence.
Firm line
Agency Environment Planning Manager, Dr David Hudson, said: “These offences were symptomatic of SITA's failure to maintain proper standards of operation at the Ettingshall site. The Environment Agency expects companies who operate waste burning plants to adhere to our high standards of operation and to report problems to us as they occur. We are pleased to see that the court has taken such a firm line in this case.”
As a result of continuing technical difficulties and further enforcement action by the Environment Agency, SITA closed the Ettingshall tyre incinerator at the end of June 2000.
SITA took on the plant in late 1998 from Elm Energy. The facility was known to need technical updates and there had been a court wrangle over the original plant (which did not involve SITA in any way).
SITA issued a statement after the court case last week saying that since taking over the plant in 1998, Sita Tyre Recycling (STR) “has been trying to improve the technology to enable an efficient destruction of waste tyres while producing valuable and recyclable steel end product.”
Investment
The company added: “After significant investment in both engineering improvements, staff training and capital, it was concluded in 2000 that the originally installed systems were insufficiently robust to provide a stable and reliable service to customers and the incineration plant was closed down in June.
“The prosecutions by the Environment Agency today related to the period immediately before STR’s decision to close the plant down. It has been STR’s policy to have an open dialogue with the Environment Agency during its period of tenure of the site and the plant was regularly inspected. It is with great regret that STR was unable to bring the facility to the required standard.
SITA has still not said whether or not it will be proceeding with its planned 4 million upgrade of the plant. The situation is thought to be under review.
Subscribe for free