UK rubber firm executives fined for excessive tyre store
Two company directors from a rubber recycling company have been fined for illegally storing tyres without a waste management licence.
Brian Wade and Stephen Othen from Southern Rubber Products were fined £2,000 and ordered to pay a further £2,000 in costs by Worthing Magistrates.
The company stored eight times the number of tyres permitted at its Brimfast Lane site in Sidlesham near Chichester. It was also found to have posed a risk to human health and risk of polluting a nearby drainage ditch that feeds into a Chichester harbour. In 2003 the Environment Agency discovered that Southern Rubber Products didn’t have a licence but allowed the firm to trade while it applied for one.
However, the Agency stipulated that the firm stored no more than 5,000 tyres, a building risk assessment be carried out and a fire action plan agreed with the fire service.
The company was also asked to install a system to contain water used to put out a fire, in the event of an incident, by the fire service to prevent polluting the surroundings.
But in January last year Agency inspectors discovered over 40,000 tyres were being stored at the site and no fire measures had been put in place.
An enforcement notice was issued but on subsequent visits inspectors found that Southern Rubber had not satisfactorily complied.
Lisa Ashmore, environment officer for the Environment Agency said: “We gave Southern Rubber every opportunity to avoid prosecution. Waste crimes are irresponsible and anti-social and the actions of the defendants put both the public and the environment at risk.”
But Wade hit back and said the Environment Agency only became aware of his firm because it applied for a waste management licence. He said other firms that don’t have a licence - storing many more tyres - are going unnoticed. He added: “We were trying to do it correctly - It’s the people who do it legitimately that have all the problems.”
Wade said he was let down by a four month delay on delivery of a shredding machine which resulted in a build up of tyres. The firm now has three machines so that if one breaks down it can still process the tyres.
