Waste firm fined thousands

A TOP Cotswolds storage company has been fined £25,053 over its packaging waste.

Rapid Racking failed to register with the Environment Agency to recover and recycle packaging waste between 2004 and 2006.

Pleading guilty to the charge, the firm also asked Cheltenham Magistrates to consider 13 similar offences from 1997 to 2003.

The company, based at Kemble Industrial Park next to the airfield, near Cirencester, is estimated to have avoided up to £17,484 costs by not registering and purchasing the correct amount of Packaging Recovery Notes.

For failing to comply with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007, it was fined £15,000, and ordered to pay £8,354 compensation and the Government's £15 surcharge.

Magistrates also ordered the company to pay £1,684 in costs to the Environment Agency.

Rapid Racking is the UK's leader in supplying storage shelving and racking systems for industrial, commercial and consumer use. The company is a former winner of Gloucestershire Media's Business of the Year.

Legally, companies with more than £2 million annual turnover and which handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year, must register with the agency or a compliance scheme.

They must also provide evidence of paying to recover and recycle a specified proportion of packaging which includes wood, aluminium, steel, cardboard and plastic.

This makes companies assess and limit packaging amounts.

The money raised is pumped back into the recycling industry.

Cheltenham Magistrates heard the agency sent a questionnaire to the company on June 14, 2007, requesting details of its packaging handled data and no response was given.

A formal notice was sent with a 28-day compliance period

The agency received the completed form on November 1, indicating the company was obligated to register as it met and exceeded thresholds.

But, during the prosecution, it was discovered Rapid Racking had engaged a compliance scheme in April 2007 – and its membership was only notified to the agency in September.

But that didn't cover the former period.

Environment Agency investigating office Sue Gebbels said: "It's disappointing that although the regulations have been in force for more than a decade, there are still a significant number of companies that aren't compliant."

After the case, Rapid Racking company secretary John Cummings said: "It's very disappointing and embarrassing we find ourselves in this situation.

"We're not a massive polluter or an irresponsible company because we take environmental matters very seriously.

"But where we were remiss was by not registering with the Environment Agency. If we had known we had to register, we would but these regulations are not well-known or well-publicised.

"Unfortunately, we became aware in early 2007 we should have been registered and we offered to pay any outstanding fees – but, disappointingly, the Environment Agency doesn't appear to distinguish between companies that volunteer to register and those that have been found out."