The Environment Agency has accepted an Enforcement Undertaking offer from Swanline Print after the company failed to meet packaging recycling obligations.
The payment is part of an Enforcement Undertaking offered by the company for its failure to register as a packaging producer and take steps to recover and recycle its packaging waste under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, the Environment Agency says.
The £14,700 payment will be paid to the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust’s Craddock’s Moss project. Swanline Print are a trade-only supplier of bespoke paper-based materials, print and conversion services to the packaging and point-of-sale sectors.
The Environment Agency says the investigation into potential offences committed by Swanline Print under the Packaging regulations confirmed that the company first became obligated in the 2010 registration year but failed to register until 2021. Since then, the company has registered every year and is now compliant with the regulations.
The Environment Agency is increasingly using this method of enforcement for less serious cases.
The Environment Agency estimated that Swanline Print Limited’s avoided costs for not registering and meeting their obligation for those registration years, as a minimum of £14,659.99 which includes a penalty uplift. The company has also paid the Environment Agency’s administration, investigation and legal costs.
Jake Richardson, Senior Technical Officer for the Environment Agency, commented: “Enforcement Undertakings allow businesses who fail to comply with legal requirements or pollute the environment to come into compliance or positively address and restore any harm caused to the environment and prevent repeat incidents.
“The Environment Agency is increasingly using this method of enforcement for less serious cases to restore and improve the environment, change behaviour and improve practices of the offender.”
