Cheshire company fined for exporting tyres to Vietnam

ERJ staff report (DS)

Bristol, UK -- A Cheshire company has been ordered to pay £10,000 in fines and costs for its involvement in the illegal export of waste tyres to Vietnam. The case, taken by the Environment Agency, is the first ever taken under new regulations controlling the import and export of waste to the UK.

On July 23, 2008 an Agency officer visited a site in Warmley, Bristol where waste tyres were being stored. The tyres were baled up and being loaded onto a 40ft shipping container bound for Southampton docks.

Checks revealed the container was owned by a Malaysian shipping company and that the tyres were destined for export to China via Vietnam. The company storing the tyres said it was aware of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007, but claimed the tyre bales were not waste because they were going to be used in the construction of motorway embankments.

However, under the 2007 Regulations the export of tyres to Vietnam is prohibited unless they are intended for re-use as a tyre on a vehicle. Any other use, including the export of tyre bales for motorway embankments, was illegal as baled tyres were not a recognised product and are therefore classified as waste.

Further checks by the Agency revealed that between May and August 2008 a total of 40 containers of tyres were exported to Vietnam from the UK in five separate shipments.

BTR Limited of Canalside Industrial Estate, Oil Sites Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs by Southampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to being involved in the transport of waste tyres to Vietnam, an offence under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulation 2007. The case was heard on October 5.

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Press release from EA