Eleven companies agreed civil sanctions with the Environment Agency between May and August 2014 for failing to comply with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007.
The actions will result in environmental improvements worth more than £84,500, said the agency in its latest disclosure of enforcement undertakings (EUs).
Under the Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008, the agency can accept EUs for some environmental offences. The Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010, which came into force on 6 April 2010, states that EUs must ensure that the breach will not be repeated and, if possible, measures are put in place to restore the environment to what it would have been. Where restoration of the harm is not possible, however, action must be taken to secure equivalent benefit or improvement to the environment.
The majority of the 11 firms had neither registered with a packaging compliance scheme (reg. 40(1)(a)) nor taken reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste (reg. 40(1)(b)). They have now taken action to ensure these failings are not repeated. Action to secure equivalent benefit or improvement to the environment include the following financial contributions:
- £7,100 to Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust by meat processing business Chesterfield Poultry;
- £7,500 to Young People’s Trust for the Environment by the soft toy company Ty UK;
- £7,560 to the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust by ready meal business Oakhouse Foods;
- £9,166 to the Dorset Wildlife Trust by merchandising firm Humatt;
- £10,702 to the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust by Eurofood Partners, which imports and distributes food products;
- £15,551 to the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment (TOE2) by tea and coffee business Whittard Trading; and
- £15,654 to The Earth Trust by Weber-Stephen Products, which supplies barbecue equipment.
