Two failed company directors created a hazardous dump of carpets and plasterboard, which still exists almost four years after their waste management business collapsed.
The eyesore at the M90 Commerce Park at Lathalmond, north of Dunfermline, is also an environmental health risk.
It will cost almost £500,000 to remove but it is still not clear who will foot the bill as both men are said to have faced financial ruin because of the failed venture.
Michael Hope and James Winters appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court for running an illegal operation, which saw them reprocess waste plasterboard into gypsum which was then used as animal bedding.
The company had previously received business award nominations but it had never held a waste management licence, Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard.
Hope, 50, of Lindsay Cottage, Gairneyburn Lane, Powmill, appeared in the dock alongside Winters, 51, of Poppy Cottage, Main Street, Glenfarg.
They admitted that between September 28 2012 and February 21 2013 at unit 3, M90 Commerce Park, Lathalmond, they kept controlled waste, namely 3,500 tonnes of waste carpets and approximately 3,500 tonnes of waste plasterboard, in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health.
Hope and Winters were directors of First Option Services until 2013. Between January 2010 and September 2012, they operated a waste management facility at the site and would accept various types of waste, initially mainly plasterboard and later carpets.
Depute fiscal Fiona Caldwell said: “This case is concerned with the significant quantities of carpet and plasterboard that remain on site as a result of the company’s operations.”
In June 2012, following the deaths of livestock where waste gypsum had been used as an additional absorbent bedding, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) produced a position statement clarifying there were no exemptions for waste plasterboard being reprocessed in this manner.
Ms Caldwell said: “The use of wastes originally from plasterboard together with biodegradable waste can lead to the production of high concentrations of hydrogen and sulphide gas.
“Hydrogen sulphide is both odorous and toxic and would present a significant risk to animal and human life.”
While being interviewed under caution, both men stated that as a result of the Sepa statement their plasterboard operations folded overnight.
Solicitors for both men asked for their clients to be admonished as their failed business had resulted in financial ruin for them.
Sheriff Craig McSherry said the offence could carry a jail term of 12 months and called for reports to look at the alternatives to prison. The pair will return for sentencing on May 4.