Waste is very much in the news with the threat of closing five Somerset Recycling Centres.

So in a case brought by the Environment Agency this happened:

A Bridgwater waste business director was ordered to pay nearly £11,000 this week after his company took in excess waste, then failed to have it removed after being told to do so by the Environment Agency.

Robert Clegg, aged 34, of Main Road, Bridgwater, director of Erwin Rhodes Ltd of Axe Road, Colley Island Industrial Estate, Bridgwater, was on Tuesday fined £4,622 and ordered to pay costs of £6,351 after he admitted one charge of breaching an environmental permit and one of breaching an enforcement notice.

The charges were brought against the company, but the offences were with the consent or connivance of Clegg.

 Taunton magistrates were told that the company was a permitted waste transfer station.

Between January 2015 and August 2022 54 of its 61 Compliance Assessment Reports showed breaches to conditions, by taking in more waste than its permit allowed, resulting in a build-up of incorrectly stored and unprocessed waste.

 An inspection by Environment Agency officers in April 2022 found waste spilling out of a polythene roofed temporary building and uncovered skips filled with mixed household waste.

Director, Clegg, was told storing inert waste outside a building breached the company's permit and he was given two months to remove and dispose of the waste.

Erwin Rhodes Ltd of Axe Road, Colley Island Industrial Estate, Bridgwater, image Environment Agency

Two months later the amount of waste appeared to have grown, and again a month later

When officers returned two months later, the amount of waste appeared to have increased and an enforcement notice was issued ordering its removal within a month, along with which transfer notes were to be provided to show where it had been removed to.

But an inspection a month later showed the notice had not been complied with and the officer found an open skip containing objects wrapped in plastic and marked "biohazard". 

Clegg said he did not know what the waste was, and the officer recorded a number of permit breaches, including not having a technically competent manager on site and failure to inspect biohazard waste to confirm the description.

 The following week, Clegg was given a suspension notice closing the site to all business and was told that would be lifted when the enforcement notice was complied with.

A further site inspection three days later, and inspection of paperwork the following day, found that the notice had then been complied with.

 During an interview Clegg admitted breaching permit requirements and failing to comply with the enforcement notice, which he said, was due to cash flow problems.

 A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said following the case: "The company failed to be mindful of the restrictions placed on it by its environmental permit, which are there for good reason. Then the company failed to put things right when told to do so. These were flagrant breaches, and the company has now rightly been brought to book."

The charges:

Between 19 April 2022 and 28 July 2022, Erwin Rhodes Ltd company registration number 05421198, whilst operating a regulated facility at Axe Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5LP, namely a waste transfer state, did breach several conditions of Environmental Permit Number EPR/LP3690FA namely conditions:

- in that non-inert waste were stored outside of the site buildings.

- in that waste marked biohazard was not inspected on receipt to confirm its description and composition against the relevant waste transfer note and other accompanying documentation.

- in that Erwin Rhodes Ltd did not have present on site, a suitably trained member of staff to supervise, whenever the site was open to receive or dispatch wastes, or the site is carrying out any of the specified waste management operations.

- in that Erwin Rhodes Ltd failed to submit to the Environment Agency in writing within 5 working days, of any change in the technically competent management of the site.

And this offence was committed with the consent or connivance or attributable to the neglect of Robert Clegg Contrary to Regulations 12, 38(2) and 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

and

 Erwin Rhodes Ltd, at Axe Road, Bridgwater, Somerset, failed by the 21 July 2022 to comply with the requirements of an enforcement notice, under Regulation 36 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, sent to you on the 30 June 2022, requiring the removal of all non-inert waste stored outside, to a suitably permitted facility and to provide Waste Transfer Notes evidencing the removal and the destination of the waste to the Environment Agency, and this offence was committed with the consent or connivance or attributable to the neglect of Robert Clegg

Contrary to regulation 38(3) and 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.