Company fined for flies swarming around waste plastics and RDF and no permit

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An illegal waste operator has been fined a total of £13,500 and ordered to pay full costs of £5,795 for running a waste site without an environmental permit.

Coolprice Holdings Limited and its sole director Mark Walter Cooling were illegally depositing and storing waste plastics and refuse derived fuel (RDF) on land in Brigg, Lincolnshire.

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Scunthorpe Magistrates’ Court heard that between January and May 2012, Coolprice Holdings deposited significant volumes of waste at the site. There was approximately 4,000m3 of waste inside the building as well as a large number of bales of waste stored outside.

Local residents had complained of swarms of flies around the waste, while Environment Agency inspectors were unable to inspect the site due to the volume of flies on one occasion.

Inspectors had also warned Mark Cooling that it was an offence to store waste without a permit, but this was ignored.

Environment Agency officer Phil Henderson said: “By requiring certain waste operations to be covered by an Environmental Permit, the Environment Agency seeks to impose a number of safeguards to ensure that the activity does not adversely affect the local environment and those living and working nearby.

“In this case, the unchecked storage of waste caused a substantial fly infestation which greatly affected local residents and businesses for weeks during the summer months of 2012.

“Furthermore, when a business operates without a permit, it is able to avoid many of the costs inherent in the running of a properly-managed waste operation, thus undercutting its permitted competitors. This creates an imbalance in the market, which, if left unchecked, results in more and more businesses operating unlawfully.”