EA Fines Waste Tyre Operation £10,000

A Hartlepool company has been prosecuted for storing and shredding over 120,000 tyres at an unlicensed recycling depot. Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd, was fined £10,000 at Hartlepool Magistrates’ court on Monday 20 November and ordered to pay costs of £5,000. The company has pleaded guilty to four tyre waste offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The company was first contacted by the Environment Agency in 2002 and told that its site required a waste management licence to store and process waste tyres. However, by March 2006, Environment Agency officers found 128,000 tyres on site, causing fears of a fire risk.

Niramax Recycling submitted an initial application for a waste management licence in 2002, after being contacted by the Environment Agency.

However, the company did not supply the necessary fee or evidence of financial provision for the application to be processed and continued to take waste tyres despite a letter and notice requiring removal from the Environment Agency.

In August 2004, an officer found an estimated 17,000 tyres on site along with 850 cubic metres of tyre crumb, shredded and part shredded tyres. Equipment to shred the crumb tyres was also found.

The company’s transfer notes seized showed that it received 327 loads of waste tyres between May and August 2005 and 150 loads between August and September, which the Environment Agency said was “when the company should have been removing the tyres.”

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

The Environment Agency spokesman said: “Waste management licences set out the conditions that waste firms must follow to prevent pollution. Niramax Recycling and Manufacturing Ltd failed to get a licence and continued to bring tyres into the Mainsforth site, against our repeated instructions.”