WARREN RECYCLING Company fined for dumping without license

Prosecutors said the company dumped wood that came from a cabinet manufacturer, not a construction or demolition site.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Warren Recycling Inc. must pay $99,000 in fines after being convicted of dumping wood products without the proper license.
Judge John Stuard fined the company during a hearing Wednesday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. The company was convicted of a misdemeanor count of criminal damaging.
Breakdown of fines: The judge said Warren Recycling, 300 Martin Luther King Blvd., must pay the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency $50,000 for the cost of the prosecution of the case, $25,000 to the Ohio Attorney General's Office and $12,000 to the county prosecutor's office.
The judge also ordered the company to pay $12,000 to a local charity. The company can choose the charity, but the prosecutor's office must approve it, the judge said.
Prosecutors said the company dumped wood that came from a cabinet manufacturer, not from a construction or demolition site.
Warren Recycling has a landfill permit for construction and demolition debris, but it does not have a solid-waste permit to dump manufacturers' waste, a spokeswoman with the attorney general's office said.
Prosecutors said that if the wood is coming from an industrial process, it is solid waste.
Workers in court: Two Warren Recycling employees and an employee of Browning Ferris Industries also were in court Wednesday.
Richard B. Jones, 44 of Parkman Road, and Anthony DiCenso III, 38, of Fairway Drive, employees of Warren Recycling, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of criminal damaging. Judge Stuard gave each a 90-day suspended jail sentence, a $750 fine and ordered 200 hours of community service.
Ronald Luri, 49, of Brecksville, a BFI employee, pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor criminal damaging charge. Judge W. Wyatt McKay fined Luri $2,000.
"We are pleased with the way the case worked out," said Atty. Sean O'Brien, an assistant county prosecutor.
Mayor Hank Angelo said Warren Recycling is a waste transfer center for the city. All the trash in Warren is taken to the center where it is processed, then disposed.
sinkovich@vindy.com