Johnsons Aggregates and Recycling in Derbyshire must pay £90,000 after pleading guilty to breaking its environmental permit.
In March 2021, the Environment Agency started monitoring sites at Hallam Fields Industrial Estate, Ilkeston, due to complaints about dust, odour and noise.
The regulator says officers attended land adjacent to where Johnsons Aggregates and Recycling operated and discovered that a large amount of ash, which is commonly used as an aggregate in construction, was spread over the land.
Company officials said that the land was owned by someone else and was in the early stages of being developed. They also said that waste on the land had been placed there with the landowner’s permission and for the landowner’s use.
However, the company later accepted that it had made mistakes in dealing with the waste and that it had breached its permit by placing the waste on the land.
The company was told to remove the ash from the land by 3 January 2022. However, when Environment Agency officers visited the land, they found that the mounds of waste, though reduced in size, were still being stored and covered approximately five acres.
At Nottingham Magistrates Court on 7 November 2025, Johnsons Aggregates and Recycling were fined £40,000 and ordered to pay costs of £49,886.75 after pleading guilty at a previous hearing.
A spokesperson for the Environment Agency said: “This case shows that operators in the waste sector should realise we will not tolerate illegal waste activities. We will take enforcement action to protect the environment, people and legitimate businesses.”