West Columbia plant closed amid fire concerns

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Fire inspectors in West Columbia have closed a plastics recycling plant.

The State newspaper reported (http://bit.ly/N29kzo ) West Columbia ordered a shutdown at Global Plastic Grinders on Wednesday.

Company property manager Mark Taylor says the decision put 50 people out of work. Taylor says the move is what he called a “knee-jerk” reaction by West Columbia officials to a fire that burned at a plastics recycling plant in neighboring Cayce last month.

Taylor says Global’s operation is safe.

A June 29 fire at World Wide Recycling in Cayce took several days to contain and prompted the city to limit water use as runoff from the fire headed to the Congaree River.

Several Cayce plant officials were cited as the company was accused of illegally burning pallets near the building that burned.

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Information from: The State, http://www.thestate.com