Banff Sheriff Court has fined an Aberdeenshire man just £900 for running a major unlicensed waste operation including biodegradable wastes and large fires.
Adrian Walker, director of Trux+, a Turiff-based vegetable processing company now in liquidation, was found guilty of illegal deposit and burning of waste on land at Hospital Wood, Auchterless.
Inspecting the property in 2007, Scottish Environment Protection Agency officers found packaging boxes, vehicle parts, furniture and large deposits of rotting vegetables, paper and wood waste.
There was evidence of large fires and pools of surface water contaminated by vegetable waste and producing gas.
Further visits found continuing deposits of vegetables and fires and Walker ignored warnings to desist.
"Decomposing vegetable matter produces leachate which can leak into groundwater and watercourses, and gases which enter the atmosphere and cause unpleasant odours," said SEPA investigating officer Thomas McLeman.
"Burning plastics is recognised as causing noxious fumes which would undoubtedly have resulted in a discharge of atmospheric pollutants to the air. Essentially the company was running an unregulated landfill operation and has unfairly benefited financially by doing so, as competitors will have had to pay to transport their waste to a permitted landfill site and to dispose of it there."
