Richard Woollard - 9-Feb-2007 - Cake makers Classic Cakes Ltd of Daventry, has been fined a total of £12,000 and ordered to pay £1,100 Environment Agency costs by Northampton Magistrates’ Court today for failing its environmental duty to recycle.

At its premises in Drayton Fields, Daventry Classic Cakes specialises in making own label cake products for major retailers, packaging them for distribution.

A business which places goods into packaging is known as a pack/filler and under regulations must recover and recycle the equivalent of 37 per cent of its packaging.

The company should have followed the regulations since at least 2003. The current managing director Mr Suresh Patel took over in 2002.

Under rules to control the amount of waste going into landfill, companies which deal with more than 50 tonnes of packaging in a year and have an annual turnover in excess of £2m have a duty to pay for the recycling of a quantity of packaging material.

Classic Cakes handled 60 tonnes of packaging in 2003 and 70 tonnes in 2004. The company’s turnover for the same years was £3 million and £4.1 million.

Mr Patel told Environment Agency officers that he thought the threshold was £5million and didn’t know the figure had changed in 2000.

The company admitted six offences in Northampton Magistrates’ Court today (Fri), three offences for each of two qualifying years.

The offences came to light on a routine enquiry by the Environment Agency, whose responsibility it is to enforce the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 and 2005.

The aim of the regulations is to reduce the amount of waste going into landfill sites and the failure of companies to comply with this legislation undermines the UK’s ability to meet targets set out in the European Directive.

Under the regulations, obligated companies are required to: 1) register with the Environment Agency or a compliance scheme by 7 April each year based on the previous year’s turnover and packaging use 2) provide evidence of recovery and recycling of specific tonnages of packaging waste and 3) provide the Environment Agency with a certificate stating that they have met their obligations.

It appears that the company has been obligated for several years and would have saved money during that time by not registering to recycle. The company is now registered under the small producers scheme.

For companies with a turnover between £2 million and £5 million, a simplified system was introduced with the 2005 regulations which saves the company having to calculate the packing handled and is instead calculated pro rata based on turnover.

After the hearing Environment Agency investigating officer Charlie Phillips said: ‘The Packaging Waste Regulations aim to ensure that businesses take responsibility for packaging used on their products by contributing towards packaging recycling and recovery to minimise their environmental impact.

‘Although these regulations have been in force since 1997, some companies still ignore or remain unaware of their responsibilities. We actively seek to find and prosecute companies which are found to be in breach of these regulations.’