Companies fined £164,000 for packaging non-compliance

£190,000 for packaging non-compliance

Source: Letsrecycle.com

Businesses that failed to complywith laws designed to encourage the recycling of waste packaging paid more than £189,000 to charities to avoid legal action from the Environment Agency between September 2014 and April 2015.

Figures published this month by the Agency show that a total of 15 businesses had failed to register with a compliance scheme as required under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.

This represents an improvement for the Environment Agency on the same period 12 months earlier, when a total of £1,019,000 in payments for non-compliance with the regulations were taken from businesses (see letsrecycle.com story).

By not being registered under the regulations, the businesses will have saved money by not having to buy PRNs packaging waste recovery notes.

However, this can often be the case if businesses are unaware of the rules particularly if they grow above the 50 tonnes per year threshold for eligibility under the regulations.

Rather than facing the possibility of a court appearance and a potential fine, the firms took up an option given to them by the Environment Agency of donating money to charity.

Non-compliance

The offers are known as Enforcement Undertakings, described as an offer formally accepted by the regulator, to take steps that would make amends for non-compliance and its effects.

The largest individual fee paid out during the latest round of enforcement undertakings totalled £59,405 – and was paid out by Chilli Marketing Brand Management Ltd, the global distributor of Rekorderlig Cider, to the Woodland Trust. The firm has since registered with compliance scheme Biffpack and undertaken staff training. Its sister company Chilli Marketing Promotions also paid out £11,923 to the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

Bathroom equipment supplier Crosswater Ltd also made a contribution of over £19,000 to the Bumblebee Trust for failure to register and failure to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations. The firm has since registered with Wastepack and carried out staff training, as well as introducing a new environmental policy and management system.

A full list of civil sanctions carried forward by the Environment Agency can be found here.

Source: Charities handed £164,000 for packaging non-compliance