The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) has suspended the waste management licence belonging to Fenix Battery Recycling, the operator of the Kilwinning battery recycling site near Glasgow.
SEPA said on 27 May it served two enforcement notices requiring Fenix to remove waste batteries that have been on the Kilwinning site for longer than six months. It has also suspended the approved battery treatment operator (ABTO) status. No waste can be accepted, stored or treated by the company, it said. The only approved activity now is removal of waste to other licensed sites.
A major fire broke out in Kilwinning on 8 April and firefighters spent two nights tackling the blaze. At its height, around 40 firefighters were mobilised, according to the local fire service. SEPA said non-compliance with licence conditions and site infrastructure destroyed by the fire means continued activities could cause serious pollution and be seriously harmful to human health.
Enforcement officers found unprocessed and treated waste batteries have remained on site for longer than six months without SEPA’s prior approval.
Lin Bunten, SEPA’s COO, said: “The package of enforcement action we have set out is in response to a significant incident and designed to protect the environment and communities in the area surrounding the Fenix Battery Recycling Ltd site in Kilwinning. The decision to suspend a licence is never taken lightly, but it is one of the enforcement tools we have available and one we will use when we believe it is required to prevent risk of harm to the environment.”
SEPA said it partially suspended Fenix’s licence last year after it failed to comply with a previous enforcement notice. It was also supposed to submit a report into the fire within 14 days but did not. Remedial action is required.
Fenix announced the opening of the Kilwinning site in May 2021 and said it was multi-chemistry but would specialise in recycling EV batteries.
In April 2022, the company was refused an environmental permit by the Environment Agency for a lead-acid battery recycling plant in the Midlands. The agency said the applicant would not operate the facility in accordance with the conditions of a permit and there was a lack of technical information in the application. It noted incompetence and a persistently poor record of compliance.
Fenix has been asked by BEST to comment.