LAWR

December 2014 Local Authority Waste & Recycling 13 WASTE HANDLING lies behind the smoke? wastes are readily combustible. The past few years have witnessed a number of high- worse? Liz Gyekye reports. action, increased agency intervention at poor performing sites and a review of the powers for suspending or revoking environmental permits. Public confidence The impact that fires cause can be dev- astating. When recyclables catch fire the blaze can last for weeks and give off highly toxic chemicals. Resource Futures chair Phillip Ward says that the impact on the industry is clear - there is the loss of materials damaged by fire, directly, or by the process of putting it out. Ward also says that there is the loss of handling or processing capacity while the damage from the fire is repaired and the loss of public confidence. Ward explains: "Some of those fires have dragged on for a very long time and caused immense nuisance to those living and working near them. This will simply reinforce their bad neigh- bour image and make it harder to get planning permission for new facilities - which we will need- in the future." Increased insurance costs are also an issue. There have been reports that some underwriters are not prepared to cover waste sites and others will have increased premiums. According to press reports, WRAP Cymru had tried to establish the extent of the problem but failed because firms are not willing to talk about what is going on. The industry realises that tough measures need to be taken to prevent fires. The Waste Industry and Health Forum (WISH) has recently issued guidance for those working in the waste industry to provide site opera- tors with the information and stand- ards they need to help them to reduce fire risk. Speaking about the guidance, WISH chair Chris Jones says: "For those who are not operating accept- able standards, the publication of the guidance may mean that they have to close. However, there are those opera- tors who are unaware that they might be doing the wrong thing and improve their standards through adopting prac- tices in the guidance." Elsewhere, an EA spokeswoman says that it is proposing to carry out enhanced scrutiny of sites both at permit application and also in their first year of operation. Part of these proposals involve looking at the busi- ness model for the site including waste flows and markets. Bouncing back Fires can have a devastating impact on recycling facilities but lessons can be learned. In 2009, Lincolnshire-based ECO Plastics suffered a total loss of building and processing equipment when a faulty extraction fan sparked a fire at its Hemswell facility. Flames rapidly engulfed the building's roof, which was originally made of timber. Based on the nature of the material involved, the EA and fire authorities let it burn for nearly ten weeks to pre- vent pollution of the local waterways. Although this was a setback for a busi- ness which only a day before secured food accreditation for its rPET resin (the first in the UK), ECO Plastics bounced back and now runs the largest plastics recycling facility in the world. The current steel-framed and steel- clad building now employs full sprin- kler protection throughout all sections, including underneath mezzanine floors and above all machinery structures and conveyors. Founder and deputy chairman Jonathan Short believes the recent series of waste fires are giving the industry a bad name, but critical to preventing future accidents is storage policy. He says: "Typically externally stored material is most at risk from arson related or 'opportunistic' fires and I do think the EA should be doing more around the policing of external storage. 'Waste' should simply not be permitted to be stored in quantity on a processing site, yet it is." • In the period of 2010-2013, there were 126 fires on waste sites in Wales (source: Natural Resources Wales) • In the period of 2012- present day, there were 12 serious waste fires in Scotland (source: SEPA) • A total of 600 fires occurred at waste management sites in England between 2012 and 2013 • Poor management of waste on site and ineffective incident management procedures contribute to waste fires Fast facts

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