A Franklin County judge has ordered the owners of a closed electronics recycling company to pay millions in penalties for leaving more than 75 tons of hazardous waste in several South Side warehouses.
On July 28, Common Pleas Court Judge Andria Noble signed off on a $3 million civil penalty against the owners of Closed Loop Refining & Recovery and Closed Loop Glass Solutions, a now-closed electronics recycling company.
According to court records, Closed Loop recycled cathode-ray tube (CRT) glass, which contains a hazardous amount of lead. The company would accept these materials at the warehouses on Watkins Road and Fairwood Avenue on the South Side. The tubes are used in electronics like TVs and some computers.
The warehouses that housed the materials spanned the length of approximately four to five football fields, court records say.
The CDC says toxins in CRT are classified as neurotoxins and can be particularly harmful to small children, affect babies' development and increase the risk for cancer.
An employee of the Ohio EPA testified, according to court records, that the amount of hazardous waste he saw during a 2016 inspection at the warehouses was the most he'd seen in one place in 24 years of work. The employee testified that while he was doing the inspection on site with floor-to-ceiling stacks of hazardous waste, two additional full tractor-trailers arrived to bring more, court records say.
Representatives of Closed Loop did not appear at a hearing to determine how much their civil penalty might be, according to court records.
In total, around 150 million pounds of CRT glass and other hazardous waste were found on the sites after they stopped operations. Court records say one of the warehouses was left unlocked with unfettered access to the hazardous materials.
The owners of the warehouse buildings, Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA, spent about $17 million over three and a half years to clean up and decontaminate the properties, court records say. This included safe removal of all the hazardous materials and a floor-to-ceiling wash with a special rinse, including the HVAC systems.
The two ownership companies previously agreed to pay a $250,000 civil penalty for allowing the hazardous waste to accumulate on properties they owned.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio judge: Electronics recyclers must pay $3M over waste dumping
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