The company which has the contract for collecting green recycling bins in Dublin has been prosecuted for breaching its waste licence.
Oxigen Environmental Ltd was prosecuted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for processing more waste at a west Dublin facility than it was licensed to take and for sending waste to unapproved facilities.
It was fined €3,000 and ordered to pay legal costs of €5,225 at Dublin District Court after it pleaded guilty to six charges of breaching its waste licence at a facility in Robinhood Industrial estate.
The facility operates as a waste-transfer station and is licensed to process up to 25,000 tonnes of commercial waste annually from companies and skips, separating materials suitable for recycling and sending the remainder for landfill.
It is a separate operation to the company's high-profile contract for collecting and processing green bin waste from nearly 250,000 homes in greater Dublin. It is believed to be the single biggest waste-management contract in the State.
Oxigen was one of two companies prosecuted in the last four days by the EPA for illegal waste activity. South East Recycling Ltd was ordered to pay fines and costs of €7,365 for illegally sending mixed waste for recycling to Northern Ireland and for sending construction and demolition waste to a quarry in Co Wexford.
In a statement last night, the EPA said the prosecutions were a result of its office for environmental enforcement's stated intent to clamp down on illegal waste activity, including breaches of licences.
"The office of environmental enforcement will not tolerate breaches of licences issued to protect the environment from pollution," Mr Dara Lynott, director of the OEE, said. He said there was a determination to take whatever action was necessary.
The statement comes amid increasing focus on illegal waste in the media and recent criticisms by Northern Ireland authorities and the European Commission of the response of authorities in the Republic to illegal waste activity.