Surrey-based Fine Foods International has been convicted in a case brought by the Environment Agency for failing to take the necessary steps to recycle and recover packaging waste.
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Under legislation which came into force in 1997, all companies with an annual turnover of more than £2m which handles over 50 tonnes of packaging or materials a year are required to implement measures to increase the re-use, recovery or recycling of products or materials.
The Environment Agency monitors, and enforces where necessary, compliance with these regulations. The company did not register with the Agency in 1999 or 2000 and did not take steps to recycle and recover packaging waste.
Fine Foods International, which imports and sells coffee and hot drinks to retailers and vending customers and deals with major supermarket chains in the UK, appeared at Kingston magistrates’ court charged with failing to register with the Agency in 1999 and 2000, failing to take reasonable steps to recycle and recover packaging waste for 1999 and failing to get a certificate of compliance for 1999.
In 1999, the company, based in Bonner Hill Road, Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, which employs 15 people, had an annual turnover of more than £27m and handled 4,435 tonnes of packaging materials.
Company secretary Gerald Annetts was interviewed under caution on 25th August this year. Annetts confirmed that the company had not registered with the Environment Agency or a compliance scheme in any year since the regulations came into force. He confirmed that the company had not complied with the recovery and recycling obligations, nor submitted certificates of compliance to the Agency.
In explanation, Annetts claimed that the company assumed that the regulations applied only to the sellers of packaging to the end users, that at no time had the company received any communication from any government body informing it of its obligations, nor did they see any of the advertising mater relating to the regulations or read about them in the trade press.
However, there was nationwide publicity of the regulations when they regulations came into force and other businesses in similar sectors had complied with their obligations.
Fine Foods pleaded guilty under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997. On each charge of failing to register with the Agency the company was fined £1,500. On the charge of failing to take reasonable steps to recycle and recover packaging waste in 1999 they were fined £1,000, and on the charge of failing to furnish a certificate of compliance with the Agency in 1999 they were fined £500. They were also ordered to pay the Agency’s costs of £604, making a total of £5,104.
Agency officer Barrie Howe said: “These prosecutions are relatively rare – this is only the second taken in the Thames region – and for that reason we are pleased with this result. This case demonstrates the importance of companies taking environmental legislation seriously. Not only are the courts beginning to increase the levels of fines for these types of offences, but companies must also recognise the cost in terms of damage to their reputations and the confidence of their customers.”
By Stephen Blake, editor, Food Industry News
