Building Company Fined £22,500 under Packaging Waste Regulations

A Lincolnshire-based building company was fined £22,500 and ordered to pay costs of £1,165.00 following a prosecution by the Environment Agency under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997.

Jackson Building Centres Limited of Canwick Road, Lincoln appeared before Lincoln Magistrates Court on Friday 11 October 2002. The company pleaded guilty to failing to register with the Environment Agency or a compliance scheme for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. As a consequence the company also failed to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste during 1998, 1999 and 2000 and failed to furnish a Certificate of Compliance to the Environment Agency for the registration years of 1998, 1999 and 2000. A total of nine offences were heard in all.

The Court heard that, following Agency investigations, it transpired that Jackson Building Centres Ltd were committing offences under the Regulations, as the company turnover was over the permitted threshold. The Regulations, introduced five years ago, affect any business that has an annual turnover of more than £5m (£2m after the year 2000) or handles more than 50 tonnes or more of packaging material a year.

One of the purposes behind the legislation is to reduce the amount of packaging produced and to dispose of it in a sustainable way. There is vast environmental damage caused by packaging waste and the final resting-place is often in landfill sites.

These Regulations encourage a reduction in the quantity of packaging waste produced. By imposing a recovery and recycling obligation on the major producers of packaging, this should ensure that much of the waste does not end up in landfill, but is reused and recycled as far as possible.

Jackson Building Centres was fined £2,500 for each of the nine offences – a total of £22,500 - and was ordered to pay costs of £1,165.00. The company was officially registered under the Regulations on 9 April 2001.
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