UK Agency fines tyre storage company

ERJ staff report (DS)

London -- The UK Environment Agency has fined a tyre recycling company a total of £13 200 (euro 14 900) for illegally storing around 100 000 baled up tyres on a farm, and presenting a fire hazard.

Borough Recycling Specialists Ltd admitted four charges relating to the operation at Holme Farm, Kirton Holme, Boston UK and was fined £10,000 on the first offence with no separate penalty on the other three and full costs of £3200 to be paid to the Environment Agency.

The company had registered waste exemptions allowing the storage of certain types of waste at the farm, including up to 1000 tyres but when Environment Agency officers visited they found about 100 000 tyres at the site which had been baled up and then stored.

Directors of the company told investigating officer Graham Cantellow that they thought that baled tyres were no longer classed as waste and were convinced that a document called 'Tyre Bales in Construction' proved that. However, the officer checked the document and found that it confirmed that tyre bales remain waste until used in construction.

Anne-Lise McDonald, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, said: 'One of the exemptions allowed the treatment of certain types of waste but did not include tyres. Borough Recycling received 945 tonnes of waste tyres and were paid £60 per tonne. The company had only sent letters to organisations they thought might be interested in taking baled tyres but it was clear they had no definite exit route for them. None of the bales ever left the site'.

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Press release from UK Environment Agency