Leicester company’s recycling failure leads to charity payment

Company pays £17,600 to Bradgate Park Trust’s Jubilee Woodland project.

• Enforcement Undertaking accepted to address breach of environmental legislation
• Local environment and public to benefit from the Environment Agency’s response to company’s failure to meet packaging recycling obligations

Leicestershire’s Bradgate Park Trust’s Jubilee Woodland project has received a financial boost after the Environment Agency accepted an Enforcement Undertaking (EU) from Leicester-based Trafalgar Scientific Limited.

The payment is part of an EU 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.

Trafalgar Scientific Limited is now complying with the regulations and has made a payment of £17,600 to the Bradgate Park Trust’s Jubilee Woodland project, along with taking other actions to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

The Jubilee Woodland project aims to advance the education of the public in the appreciation and care of the environment; plant more trees for the purpose of CO² sequestration (removal and storage of CO²); protect biodiversity of the woodland and create a walkway through the park.

Trafalgar Scientific is a supplier of laboratory and microbiological equipment to both public and private sectors across the UK which includes items such as air samples, petri dishes, laboratory protection wear and DNA testing kits.

Jake Richardson, Senior Technical Officer for the Environment Agency, said: We’re pleased that Trafalgar Science is now working in line with the regulations.

Enforcement Undertakings enable businesses to address historical non-compliance under the Packaging Regulations, through a series of actions that ensure future compliance and a financial contribution to a suitable environmental project.

The aim of the Packaging Regulations is to reduce the amount of packaging waste that enters our landfill sites by requiring obligated businesses (producers) to contribute financially towards the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.

The Environment Agency is increasingly using this method of enforcement for cases to restore or enhance the environment, improve practices of the offending business and ensure future compliance with environmental requirements. However, we will continue to pursue prosecution where appropriate.

James Dymond, Director, Bradgate Park Trust, said: The funding from the Enforcement Undertaking will be used to plant a new area of parkland tree planting in a field adjacent to our Hallgates car park. This will also include fencing, new hedgerows, field margins and interpretation.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/leicester-company-s-recycling-failure-leads-to-charity-payment