Beer importer enters into enforcement undertaking for packaging recycling failings
Budweiser Budvar UK Ltd has contributed more than £400,000 to a national environmental charity after failing to register as a producer of packaging.
The company was first required to register in 2004 under regulations on packaging waste. A 2022 Environment Agency Investigation found that the company had failed to do so. The company claimed it was unaware of the regulations until the Environment Agency investigation commenced.
Budweiser Budvar UK Ltd proposed an enforcement undertaking: a legal agreement between the company and the Environment Agency as an alternative action to prosecution or other monetary penalty.
Enforcement Undertakings for environmental offences were introduced under the Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010 and the Environmental Civil Sanctions (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2010. Enforcement undertakings present an alternative to prosecution. Accepting an Enforcement Undertaking is always at the discretion of the EA.
Enforcement Undertaking
As part of the agreed enforcement undertaking, Budweiser Budvar UK Ltd contributed £414,003.54 to Keep Britain Tidy for use in their Great British Spring Clean campaign.
The payment was agreed as the amount saved by the company in not recycling or recovering packaging waste, plus a penalty of 30 per cent. In addition, the company covered the Environment Agency’s costs.
Convictions for three individuals who dumped 26,000 tonnes of waste
Three men have been convicted following an Environment Agency-led investigation into large-scale illegal deposits of waste at 14 sites across the country.
The investigation involved 17 sites across Liverpool, Lancashire, Staffordshire, the West Midlands, Shropshire, Yorkshire and Humberside. More than 26,000 tonnes of waste is estimated to have been deposited illegally across the sites.
Organised criminals approached waste facilities and offered to dispose of baled waste at reduced costs, which they later abandoned. The men are estimated to have avoided landfill tax costs in excess of £2.7 million, while the cost of clearing the waste at the landowners’ expense is estimated at more than £3.2 million.
Impacts for the victims included the financial costs of removing the waste, fly and rat infestations causing nearby businesses to close and the closure and demolition of sites. There were also further impacts to the environment, the victims’ health and neighbouring communities.
Offences included the gang entering into rental or lease agreements with owners of land, farms, industrial units and, in one instance, an operational airfield, under the false pretences of storing plastic pellets and motor vehicles or for the temporary storage of refuse derived fuel for later exportation to incinerators abroad. The baled waste, normally made up of household or business waste, was then abandoned at the sites.
The waste was also diverted to sites which were owned but unused, forcing entry and depositing bales of waste. This method was highly organised and made to seem legitimate by the gang deploying ‘security officers’ in hi-vis clothing at the entrance to the sites.
Breaches
The three men pleaded guilty to various environmental, company and fraud offences. Sentencing is due to take place on 17 and 18 December 2024.
Enforcement undertaking includes donation to West Midlands nature recovery project
An enforcement undertaking has been agreed by the Environment Agency, following a fire at a waste site.
In September 2022, an intense but short-lived fire occurred at Axil Integrated Services’ Cannock site. Water used to put out the fire was contaminated but was contained on site and removed. The operator has subsequently worked with the Environment Agency to agree remedial works.
In conjunction with the remedial works, the operator proposed an enforcement undertaking that offered £100,000 to a partnership of organisations who deliver local nature projects. This was agreed.
The money was donated to the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country towards their Purple Horizons Nature Recovery Project. This project is creating a nature-rich corridor between Cannock Chase Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and Sutton Park National Nature Reserve (NNR).
Environment Agency officers said the company had co-operated fully following the incident, submitting a full incident report and statements admitting their failures within two days and carrying out repair work.
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