Suffolk Company Fined for Running Illegal Waste Site

A Suffolk property services company has recently been fined £3500 and asked to pay £2500 costs for running an illegal waste site and failing to provide waste transfer notes.

Ipswich Magistrates’ Court heard today that Stowbox Ltd had been depositing, treating, storing and disposing of waste at its premises at Woodfarm Business Centre, Crowfield, Ipswich, without being authorised by an environmental permit. The court heard that it had also failed to provide its customers with waste transfer notes, which provide a written description of the waste, as required.

Miriam Tordoff, prosecuting for the Environment Agency (UK), said that significant amounts of waste had been deposited, treated and stored and some waste had been burned on site.

She said that bringing waste on site was commonplace and when Environment Agency officers attended they found a variety of rubbish from house clearances including fridges, freezers, vehicle batteries, scrap metal, mattresses, fabric, wood and electrical items.

Mrs Tordoff explained that Stowbox had an agreement to clear housing association properties but the housing association had not received any transfer notes from Stowbox for the transfer of waste from their properties. She said that the housing association understood that some of the waste was bulked up at the Woodfarm premises and taken to legitimate waste sites for recycling or disposal.

After the hearing, Environment Agency officer Tom Pickover, said: “Large amounts of waste were handled at the site without a permit. Unregulated waste activities impact on the amenity of an area and can cause harm to human health and pollute the environment.”