News

The Environment Agency has successfully prosecuted three companies in the North-West under the Packaging Waste Regulations.

Pet food manufacturer Golden Acres and sister company Golden Acres Milling of Tarleton and Beaconsfield Footwear were all fined at Ormskirk magistrates court on Thursday 2 October.

Golden Acres and Golden Acres Milling were fined a combined total of £15,000 and ordered to pay £5,284 in compensation and £2,646 in costs.

A spokesman from the company called the regulations a "tax on packaging" and said it encouraged "the exporting of waste to Indonesia and other far-off lands".

Meanwhile, Beaconsfield Footwear was ordered to pay £21,000 to the Environment Agency after pleading guilty to 15 offences under the Packaging Waste Regulations.

The Lancashire-based company was fined £15,000 in total by Ormskirk Magistrates Court for having failed to register with the Environment Agency as a producer of packaging waste.

The company was also ordered to pay £4,204 compensation to the Environment Agency for registration fees as well as full costs of £1,876.

John Anderson, group operations director at Beaconsfield Footwear, said: "It was accepted that the failure to register was due to an oversight, which arose at a time of rapid expansion at the Skelmsdale company.

"The company took steps to register as soon as it realised the oversight had taken place and is now fully compliant with the environmental legislation."

Companies with an annual turnover of more than £2m and which handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year have to register with the Environment Agency or join a compliance scheme and recover and recycle a percentage of waste, based on the amount of packaging they handled the previous year.