EPA Prosecutes South East Recycling

South East Recycling Company Limited pleaded guilty to an offence under the Waste Management Acts 1996 - 2003 in Wexford District Court on Monday, 6th December 2004 for breaches of its waste licence (Reg. No. 111-1).

The company admitted breaching conditions of its waste licence by the unauthorised sending in excess of 300 tonnes of waste off-site for disposal to a waste facility in Northern Ireland and the sending of construction and demolition waste to a quarry in County Wexford. Given that both the facility in Northern Ireland and the quarry in Co. Wexford were unsuited to this type of waste, disposal in this uncontrolled manner had the potential to cause pollution to ground.

The facility operates as a waste transfer station, accepting commercial and industrial non-hazardous wastes and recyclable waste collected from bring banks. The recyclable waste consist of glass, cardboard and aluminium cans. Waste collected from skips is also brought to the facility to extract recyclable materials. Nonrecyclable waste is brought to landfill whereas the recyclable waste is sent to relevant recovery facilities.

The Barrister acting on behalf of the company stated that the offences related to housekeeping matters and asked the court to apply the benefit of the Probation Act, Judge O’Buachalla refused the application, stating that this was a serious matter, he imposed a fine of €1,400. The Agency’s costs of €5,965 were also awarded.

The Company was granted a waste licence on 24th January 2001 for the operation of a waste transfer station and recycling facility, which is situated on a site a little over three hectares in extent, in Pembrokestown on the outskirts of Wexford Town.

The prosecution was taken following the outcome of site investigations undertaken by the Office of Environment Enforcement with the co-operation of Wexford County Council.