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Comment from:
        Mary Horner
        National Association of Cleaner Kilns (NACK)

HIGH COURT
March 22 2001

Lancashire and Lincolnshire environmentalists, who objected to the burning of an alternative liquid fuel at local cement works, will take some comfort from a High Court judge's decision today.

In a test case ruling, Mr Justice Stanley Burnton said 'Cemfuel' - derived from waste solvents and oils - had rightly been treated as 'hazardous waste' by the Environment Agency.

The judge's decision will allow the Agency to subject the burning of Cemfuel at the Ribblesdale Cement Works, Clitheroe, and the Ketton Cement Works in Rutland, to a detailed and rigourous monitoring regime prescribed by European law.

But the ruling was a major set back for Castle Cement Ltd who own both plants, and who now face the crushing additional costs of complying with the monitoring demands.

To add to it's woes, the company was ordered to pay the substantial legal costs of the High Court case.

The Environment Agency in June last year informed Castle Cement Ltd that it would classify 'Cemfuel' as 'hazardous waste' and subject it to an extra-vigilant monitoring regime.

In a test case of importance to the cement and other industries that use Cemfuel, the company asked the judge to overturn the Agency's decision and make a once-and-for-all declaration that Cemfuel was not 'waste'.

But Castle Cement's arguements were hotly disputed by the Environment Agency who won the day when Mr Justice Burnton ruled: "Cemfuel is a hazardous waste, and has rightly been treated as such by the Environment Agency."

Cemfuel has been burned at both cement works since the early 1990s subject to Integrated Pollution Control authorisations.

But last year the Agency said that the burning of Cemfuel would in future be subject to the EU Hazardous Waste Incineration Directive amnd amended the authorisations so that more rigourous air emission limits and monitoring would be put in place.

Castle Cement has always insisted that the new regime is both unnecessary and outside the Agency's powers.

Whilst accepting that Cemfuel is made from waste products, the company argued that the Agency had acted on the fundamentally mistaken premise that Cemfuel is itself 'waste'.

Whilst rejecting that arguement, Mr Justice Burnton accepted that Cemfuel has a number of environmental advantages over coal.

It's use reduces the consumption of fossil fuels. The waste from which it is produced is consumed instead of being consigned to landfill or incinerated as a means only of disposal.

But he ruled that Cemfuel, useful as it is, is nevertheless 'waste' until the moment it is actually used as fuel. "It's constituent wastes are not 'recovered' until the Cemfuel is incinerated."

The judge said the manufacture of cement required an enormous amount of energy with temperatures of up to 2000 degrees centigrade having to be attained.

Cemfuel is the proprietary name for a substitute liquid fuel produced by Solvent Resource Management Ltd, an affiliated company of Castle Cement. It was developed in the early 1990s and is produced using mainly solvents and liquids derived from waste sources.

From Mary Horner, Farmers Wife, Clitheroe
The EA was joined by Residents’ solicitor and barrister, who were allowed by the Judge to “join in” the action against CC.
Congratulations therefore to Mr Richard Buxton, solicitor on behalf of the resident. Congratulations and many , many thanks to those at NACK, for highlighting the very important issues involved, and for getting the ball rolling. The resident was actually a Co. Durham lady, adjacent to Thristlington’s waste burning lime kilns. The judge recognised the National importance of this case, and gave permission for the “joining in”.

From NACK
We were ‘ably assisted’ in-particular by members in London, Cheshire, and Lancashire, financially and with information, and by solicitors in London, Cambridge, and Manchester, without who's input we are very sure the Environment Agency would have not have put forward a successful case.