Lafarge Cement rapped over Westbury pollution

Lafarge Cement’s Westbury works was in trouble with the Environment Agency (EA) last week, after the company failed to come to terms with pollution limits for alternative fuels.

The EA served an enforcement notice on the site for breaches of its permit to burn tyres.

The plant exceeded its limits for emissions of hydrogen chloride and oxides of nitrogen from its two kilns.

The move came after the EA set tighter pollution targets for tyre burning at Westbury last December, to allow Lafarge it to burn alternative fuels under the Waste Incineration Directive.

The agency said it is “very concerned” the site is not meeting its new conditions.

The EA last year stopped trials to burn alternative fuels at Westbury, and said it was “extremely concerned” about management at the site. The move followed construction industry panic when Lafarge admitted false reporting of alkali levels in cement.