Firm fined for exporting rubbish

A waste disposal company has been fined a total of £55,000 after admitting illegally exporting household rubbish destined for developing countries in Asia.

Grosvenor Waste Management (GWM) Ltd, based in Crayford, Kent, admitted six breaches of the Transfrontier Shipments of Waste Regulations at Maidstone Crown Court in February.

The Environment Agency said GWM illegally exported about 1.8 million kilograms of unsorted household waste, the equivalent of 90 lorry loads, to India, China and Indonesia.

Judge Philip Statman, sitting at Maidstone Crown Court, said there was a poor structure in place at GWM Ltd at the time to ensure domestic and European regulations were complied with.

He said: "These are crimes against the environment. They strike not only at the United Kingdom and its population but at the planet as a whole."

The prosecution, which followed a two-year investigation, concerned domestic waste from London and the Home Counties shipped from GWM's site between November 2004 and May 2005.

Fifteen containers were detained at Southampton port on 29 November 2004, of which seven were destined for India and China. The court heard that paperwork wrongly stated they all contained waste paper.

Sailesh Mehta, prosecuting, said Environment Agency officers noticed a strong smell of decaying domestic and household waste, and there were flies in many of the containers.

After sentencing, the company issued a statement which said: "The Judge noted that the offences had occurred over a 'very short period of time' and that Grosvenor pleaded guilty 'at the earliest opportunity'.

"Grosvenor, realising the problem, had sought to put things right earlier rather than later.

"The prosecution accepted that there had been improvements by February 2005 less than a month after the problems experienced in January. The Judge also noted that an Environment Agency inspection in February 2006 confirmed that quality had vastly improved."

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