Environment Agency secures first UK prosecution over electrical waste

The Environment Agency last month secured the first ever prosecution for a failure to meet obligations under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

Hairdressing supplies wholesaler Aston and Fincher of Pavilion Drive, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to 31 charges relating to failure to comply with packaging waste regulations and failure to register as a producer of electrical and electronic waste.

The Agency said that the company had avoided paying £10,900 by failing to comply with the packaging regulations and £445 plus the unknown costs of financing the recovery and recycling of waste equipment for which it had been responsible.

This gave the company an unfair competitive advantage against its rivals that have complied with the relevant legislation, it added.

Aston and Fincher was fined £650 for each offence, making a total of £20,150. It was also ordered to pay £7,135 compensation to the Environment Agency for loss of registration fees, £3,605.11 in costs and a victim surcharge of £15.

The packaging regulations have been in force since 1997 and require companies who handle packaging to register and provide evidence that they have recycled packaging.

Environment Agency investigations revealed that Aston and Fincher had committed offences every year between 2001 and 2008.

The company also imported electrical items into the UK, but failed to meet obligations imposed by the WEEE Regulations, which came into force in 2007. The Environment Agency said it was the first prosecution of a producer of electrical equipment under these regulations.

Hannah Wooldridge, the officer leading the investigation, said: “This is the first prosecution of a business for offences under both the Packaging regulations and the similar producer responsibility legislation for electrical equipment. It should send a strong message out to all companies who do have producer responsibility obligations to ensure that they comply with the legal requirements placed on them.”

Wooldridge said the Environment Agency would continue to enforce the regulations, using its resources to target high-risk areas.

She added: “We will continue to work with responsible businesses to reduce the amounts of packaging and electrical waste ending up in landfills, but we will also work hard to seek out and prosecute companies who fail to meet their obligations.

“Legal compliance including environmental regulation should be high on the agenda for company management, and this company has paid a heavy price for failing to recognise this’.

Aston and Fincher’s company secretary, David Winnington, said there was not a deliberate intention to evade the regulations, but that the company was simply not aware of them.

The company is now fully compliant with both sets of regulations, he said, and had pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity.