Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) arrested the owner of a hazardous waste disposal business for alleged illegal disposal of biomedical waste.
Need RCRA training? In September, catch the RCRA Hazardous Waste Management Workshop in Minneapolis, Cedar Rapids, Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, or Indianapolis.
On August 1, DEP’s Southwest District
Environmental Crimes Unit charged the business owner with:
- 11 felony counts of littering for commercial purposes and economic gain;
- 11 misdemeanor counts of nuisance injurious to health;
- 11 misdemeanor counts of storage of biomedical waste at a non-permitted location; and
- One felony count of violation of probation.
Three days prior, DEP’s Office of Emergency Response followed a complaint and obtained an Inspection Warrant for the Specialty Trailer Leasing storage location in Plant City.
State investigators found eight 53-foot trailers and three cargo shipping containers containing more than 50,000 pounds of untreated biomedical waste at the Plant City location.
DEP must now hire a licensed contractor to remove the waste and take it to an approved disposal facility.
This is not the first time the Tampa business owner has come under scrutiny. Last November, his waste disposal company was
fined over $37,000 for keeping 14-month-old unlabeled and untreated biomedical waste in shipping trailers.
Online Medical Waste Shipper Training at Your Convenience
Learn a step by step approach to properly prepare shipments of regulated medical waste for transport. The
Shipping Medical Waste Online Course covers the 49 CFR (DOT) regulations that healthcare professionals must know to identify, package, mark, label, and handle these hazardous materials shipments.
Online hazmat training gives you the flexibility to start, pause, and come back
to your training—at your own pace and on your own schedule.