TWO businesses responsible for illegally exporting 259 tonnes of mixed waste to China were on Wednesday fined the maximum for the offence.
Ten containers from Bourne were stopped at the Port of Felixstowe on a routine inspection and found to have contents not suitable for export to China under international convention, designed to protect human health and the environment.
Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting for the Environment Agency, told Grantham magistrates that the UK and China are both signed up to the convention.
All the containers were loaded at BW Riddle, a vehicle dismantling and metal recycling site in South Fen Road. Bourne. Partner Colin Riddle admitted breaching the regulations and failing to fill in paperwork correctly describing the waste.
He was fined £5,000 and £4,000 for failing in his duty of care.
Derby firm Chungs UK Ltd, which sources and exports scrap metal and plastic to sell, mainly to China, also pleaded guilty to breaching the regulations and was fined £5,000, the maximum for the offence when heard in the magistrates’ court.
The businesses were also each ordered to pay £6,500 towards costs.
Mrs Tordoff said although the loads were not hazardous, samples showed the mix was not right for automatic export to countries signed up to the convention.
China had not agreed to accept the waste from Bourne and the lack of description of the waste meant there was no prior agreement to show that it would be managed in an environmentally sound way.
Both companies had admitted it was not the first time they had exported this type of waste to China without notification or consent. On the transfer notes the waste was described as Type A indicating ‘aluminium from construction and demolition waste’.
Instead, the containers held a mix of steel car parts, copper wiring, aluminium foil and alloy parts, rubber and plastic hoses, jubilee clips, pieces of car tyre, pieces of upvc window frames, plastic car parts, rubber car belts, circuit board, chipboard and wood fragments, glass, foam, brick and stone.