Waste tyre mountain leads to prison

1st April 2015


Related Topics

Related tags

  • Pollution & Waste Management ,
  • Prosecution ,
  • Corporate fine ,
  • Environment agencies

Author

Sunil Salpekar

Hamilton sheriff court has jailed a former director of Earthmover Tyre Recycling for 14 months and fined the firm £195,000 for illegally depositing and keeping controlled waste.

Paul Cook pleaded guilty to two offences under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 for depositing and keeping controlled waste on land without a waste management licence between October 2012 and April 2013.

The illegal waste included a vast quantity of tyres, tyre bales and tyre crumb. Officers from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) discovered about 140,000 tyres at the north Lanarkshire site.

Many were stacked haphazardly in piles higher than allowed at licensed facilities, and too close together, making it difficult for fire trucks to access the site. Fire is the biggest environmental risk associated with scrap tyres as burning rubber pollutes the atmosphere.

Sepa used its statutory powers to remove most of the tyres at a cost of more than £437,000.

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