Companies behind large hazardous waste dump in Columbus ordered to pay $3 million

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A judge ordered two central Ohio companies to pay $3 million for leaving behind toxic waste from their electronics recycling businesses.

“These companies dumped a toxic mountain of waste and vanished, but the consequences caught up with them,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “This is the final chapter in one of the largest hazardous waste cases our office has ever taken on.”

Closed Loop Refining & Recovery and Closed Loop Glass Solutions claimed to recycle cathode-ray tube (CRT) glass, but Yost said they instead accumulated 150 million pounds of the glass. CRT glass is used in televisions and computer monitors and contains hazardous levels of lead. In this case, it was kept in two large warehouses on Watkins Road and Fairwood Avenue.

As ordered by a Franklin County judge this week, Closed Loop will pay $3 million for illegally collecting and storing the hazardous waste. Closed Loop's warehouses were owned by Garrison Southfield Park and Olymbec USA, who previously settled with the state and have invested $17 million in decontamination efforts.

The waste concerns date back over a decade. In 2013, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency investigated a complaint at the Closed Loop facility and found 300 pallets of broken CRT stored in unsafe containers. The Ohio EPA also found permit violations and dangerously high lead quantities.

The Ohio EPA ordered Closed Loop to immediately clean up the site, and the warehouses were cleaned within a month. However, court documents show the recycling operations at one of the facilities "broke" in 2015, but the warehouse kept receiving CRT glass. Closed Loop was ordered to fix the issues, but one year later, about 90% of warehouse space was full of unrecycled CRT, court documents said.

Court documents said it became "obvious" that Closed Loop was not going to clean up the millions of pounds of CRT glass and debris, so the warehouse owners cleaned up instead. It took more than three years to decontaminate.

After several years of lawsuits, Closed Loop is now responsible for $3 million in civil penalties, which is to be paid to the state.