Dive Brief:

• The Attorney General of Massachusetts, Martha Coakley, announced that two recycling companies will pay fines totaling $125,000 for their alleged roles in filling and excavating protected wetlands and improperly handling the storage of solid and hazardous waste materials at a recycling plant in Walpole, Massachusetts.
• Allied Recycling Center Inc. and Recycling Walpole LLC, have agreed to restore wetlands and properly dispose of solid waste and waste containing asbestos under the terms of the consent judgment. They will also rectify handling, storage, and reporting of oil or hazardous material on site.
• The two companies involved had been illegally filling and changing wetland areas near their properties since 1988. 

Dive Insight:

The issued complaint states that materials were improperly labeled, and the companies failed to report the release of oil to the Massachusetts DEP. The companies also accepted construction and demo waste without a permit and did not dispose of the materials correctly.