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Carluccio's
PLC was fined £15,000 recently in connection with breaches of
legislation relating to packaging waste, following routine checks by
the Environment Agency in November 2006.
Carluccio's PLC, based in Covent
Garden London, runs a chain of Italian restaurants and food shops.
The nature of its business means that it handles a range of
packaging, including; wine bottles, jars, cardboard boxes, bags,
labels, pallets and shrink wrap.
Under the Producer Responsibility
Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations, companies who have an
annual turnover in excess of £2 million (£5 million in 1997
and 1998) and who handle in excess of 50 tonnes of packaging per
annum must register with the Environment Agency or a compliance
scheme. Registration and submission of data is required by 7 April in
each subsequent year. Each year, the company must also provide
evidence of payment for recover and recycling of a specified
proportion of packaging waste, including wood, aluminium, steel,
cardboard and plastic.
The regulations are designed to
make companies assess the amount of packaging they handle and, where
possible, limit its use. For the packaging remaining, companies are
expected to purchase evidence of recovery and recycling.
The money raised by doing this is
invested in the recycling industry. Details of the regulations are
available in trade journals, through trade organisations and online
but unfortunately, many organisations remain unaware of this
responsibility and, year on year, packaging continues to pile up in
the UK's landfill sites.
On Wednesday 22 October 2008 the
company pleaded guilty to failing to register with the Environment
Agency as a producer of packaging and failing to meet its
requirements to recover and recycle packaging waste between 2004 and
2006. The company asked the court to take into consideration similar
offences in 2002 and 2003.
The company then joined the
Paperpak compliance scheme on 12 February 2007.
It was calculated that the
company had avoided costs of around £16,778 by not registering
or purchasing the correct amount of packaging recovery notes as
required by the regulation since 2002. The company was fined
£15,000 and additionally the company was ordered to pay to the
Environment Agency compensation of £4,159. The magistrates also
ordered the company to pay £2,400 in costs to the Environment Agency.
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