The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office announced on August 4th that the global freight and logistics company UPS and its subsidiaries (including UPS Supply Chain Solutions, General Services, Inc., and UPS Supply Chain Solutions, Inc.) have been found guilty of illegally disposing of hazardous and medical waste in California.
This ruling was made by the San Joaquin County Superior Court on July 25th and involves 140 UPS facilities across California, with 10 located in Riverside County.
The fines imposed by the ruling include: $1.4 million in civil penalties, $140,000 in investigation costs, and $205,000 for environmental projects (including ecological restoration and pollution abatement).
Of this, Riverside County will receive $255,000, including $230,000 from the civil penalties and $25,000 for recycling cost reimbursement.
The county’s district attorney stated in a declaration, “UPS, like all California businesses, has a responsibility to properly handle the hazardous and medical waste generated in its operations, and to properly label and segregate these wastes to ensure that different types of waste are not mixed, thus preventing hazardous chemical reactions or damage to the environment.”
The improperly discarded waste includes flammable, reactive, toxic, and corrosive materials, which UPS placed in regular trash bins – not intended for hazardous materials – and transported them to unpermitted landfills, posing potential risks to public health and the environment.
Due to the widespread nature of the violations, this case was investigated jointly by several county prosecutor’s offices, including Riverside, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, and Yolo counties.
Prosecutors pointed out that UPS’s violations of California environmental regulations could contaminate soil and water sources and pose potential threats to waste disposal personnel.
UPS, headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, has been collaborating with authorities and has pledged to improve waste disposal measures, including providing comprehensive training to employees on handling hazardous and medical waste in compliance with regulations.
As of the time of publication, UPS has not responded to Epoch Times’ request for comment.
In fact, UPS had previously reached a $5.3 million settlement agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2022 for violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), covering 1,160 facilities nationwide, including in Puerto Rico.
At that time, the terms of the penalty included a 36-month compliance oversight period.