Company prosecuted after serious fire at recycling plant

S L Recycling Limited, a metal and waste recycling company in south Wales, has been fined £64,000.00 for environmental offences, after a significant fire broke out at a recycling plant on the Penallta industrial estate in Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly in September 2021.

 The company  appeared at Newport  Crown  Court for sentencing this morning - Thursday, 26th June 2025, after previously pleading guilty to three separate charges, in a case brought by Natural Resources Wales (NRW)

The charges against SL Recycling Limited related to:  

• Failure to manage and operate the activities in accordance with its written Fire Prevention Plan in that it failed to ensure that waste stockpiles were sufficiently separated, were not excessive in volume, and were below 4m high.
• Failure to manage and operate the activities in accordance with its written Fire Prevention Plan in that it failed to ensure that a fire quarantine area was available which could hold 50% of the volume of the largest stockpile and with a separation distance of 6 meters from any other waste.
• Failure to ensure that operations were undertaken in accordance with the written Environmental Management Plan in that the Company failed to manage and operate the activities such as to identify and minimise any risk of pollution.

These are offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016.

On the 1 September 2021, a large scale fire broke out at the S L Recycling plant in Ystrad Mynach Caerphilly, after a lithium-ion battery exploded when a vehicle shell was crushed.

The fire spread to the primary stock pile of scrap metal stored centrally within the yard, leading to approximately 150 tonnes of recycling material including, plastic, foam, electrical items, lead batteries, and gas cylinders to catch fire, alongside machinery.

The blaze was attended by the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service and took until the afternoon of the 2 September to bring under control.

The court heard that the stockpile of waste on the site was excessively large in volume, exceeding the maximum 4 meters storage height set out in the Fire Prevention Mitigation Plan (FPMP), and breaching the conditions of the environmental permit.

Concerns over the storage height had been raised previously by NRW officers during a site visit on 4 February 2021. Mr Lewis, sole Director of SL Recycling Limited,  was advised that the height of the primary stock pile needed to be reduced to 4 meters.

The height of the waste made it difficult for firefighters to safely extinguish and segregate the hotspots within the stockpile of waste.

The FPMP also required the operator to have a designated quarantine area on site, which can be used as a designated location to place affected waste in the event of a fire to ensure it is fully extinguished.

 The quarantine area should be large enough to hold at least 50% of the volume of the largest stockpile. At the Penallta site, the area was found to be insufficient to effectively deal with the incident given the volume and size of the waste stockpile.

Due to the volume of water required to manage and extinguish the fire, the site’s drainage inceptor became overwhelmed. This lead to contaminated water running off the site,  causing large amounts of waste oil to wash through in to the local watercourses.  

The pollution had a significant effect on the Nant Cylla and River Rhymney Confluence with impacts observed over 2.3km from the site.

These included strong smells of oil and fuel, presence of foam, high levels of suspended solids in the nearby watercourses and staining of the riverbank.

A full biological and fisheries sampling survey carried out by officers from NRW found a total number of 175 dead fish over a 2.3 km stretch of watercourse, including trout and bullhead.

At  Newport Crown  Court earlier today ( Thursday 26 June) S L Recycling  Limited  was fined £64,000 for Count 1, with no separate penalty for Counts 2 and 3.  They were also ordered to pay £30,000 costs and a victim surcharge of £190.

David Griffiths, Industry and Waste Team Leader for Natural Resources Wales said:  

Environmental regulations are in place for a reason.

Failure to comply with the legal requirements of an environmental permit is a serious offence that can damage the environment, undermine those who adhere to the rules and cause misery for local communities. 

This case demonstrates what can happen when operators don’t adhere to the conditions of their permits. Their actions to disregard our warnings about the height of the stockpiles led to this fire, which ultimately led to significant environmental impacts.  

We welcome the sentence handed down today and hope that it serves as a strong reminder to waste operators that any disregard for environmental regulations will not be tolerated.

To report an environmental incident call 0300 065 3000 or use the online report it form: Natural Resources Wales / Report an incident