Court Orders $3M Penalty Pay for Electronics-Recycling Companies

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Two defunct electronic-recycling companies were recently ordered to pay $3 million in civil penalties by a Franklin County judge.

The penalties are for the abandonment of massive quantities of hazardous waste in Columbus, according to Attorney General Dave Yost, Ohio-R. 

“These companies dumped a toxic mountain of waste and vanished, but the consequences caught up with them,” Yost said. “This is the final chapter in one of the largest hazardous waste cases our office has ever taken on.”

The companies facing the fines are Closed Loop Refining & Recovery and Closed Loop Glass Solutions. 

Closed Loop presented itself as a recycler of cathode-ray tube (CRT) glass, a material containing hazardous levels of lead, but instead illegally accumulated 150 million pounds recycled pounds of the CRT glass and other waste in two warehouses on Watkins Road and Fairwood Avenue.

According to Yost, Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA owned the warehouses. The owners spent $17 million over three and a half years to decontaminate the sites.

Cleanup included floor-to-ceiling cleaning, triple-rinsing of HVAC systems and lawful removal and disposal of the hazardous materials.

Yost said his office had previously settled with Garrison and Olymbec for $250,000 for their actions and financial contributions to the cleanup.

 Courtesy: www.spectrumnews.com