Tyre Shredders Fined £4500

At the end of October Kevin Smith and Andrew Wilson, trading as ‘Tyre Shredders Fined £4500’, pleaded guilty to four charges relating to the keeping of waste without a Waste Management Licence at Derby Magistrates. The men also faced a charge of failing to comply with a notice requiring the removal of the illegally deposited waste.

The men were each fined £1600 Environmental Protection Act 1990 and ordered to pay costs of £650 each. Speaking after the case, Rebecca Warren, of the Environment Agency, said: “The incorrect storage of tyres poses both a threat to the environment and a fire risk. A Waste Management Licence sets down what needs to be in place to minimise these risks and therefore operating without one is both illegal and irresponsible. We will not hesitate in taking action against those behaving in such a way.”

For the Environment Agency, Kiran Cassini told the court that Mr Smith and Mr Wilson run a company called Mainline Tyre Processors, based in Woodville, Swadlingcote. They collect waste tyres and shred them for various uses. Although doing this requires a Waste Management Licence, there wasn’t one for the site. On 5 October 2004, two Environment Agency officers inspected the site and found 3000 to 5000 tyres on stored on site inside and outside buildings. They also saw a number of bags of waste rubber and shredding machines in the main building. Tyres were loaded on the machines. When questioned both men reported that they new what a Waste Management Licence was and that the business needed one.

In mitigation, the court was told that the defendants were having difficulty in disposing of the tyres and a number of them had been transferred to the site from a previous business. They had co-operated with the Environment Agency and were currently operating under a registered exemption, allowing them to keep tyres as long as the amount did not exceed 1,000. The court was also told that a Waste Management Licence had since been applied for and the defendants have successfully demonstrated technical competence for carrying out such activities.