A company which failed to comply with recycling regulations has been fined £50,000 plus £2,278 in costs, it emerged today.

Wigan-based Avalon Packaging, which pleaded guilty to 15 offences in relation to the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations of 1997, had been in breach of its obligations for eight years.

It failed to meet compliance rules, which include registering with the Environment Agency or approved scheme, providing data on waste material and paying for a certain amount of packaging to be recycled.

But last January, the company found it had not done so and alerted the authorities. The mistake, it maintained, was an oversight rather than a deliberate attempt to avoid the charges of joining such as scheme, which are estimated to have been £44,000.

Companies obliged to comply with the regulations include those with an annual turnover of more than £2 million and which produce over 50 tonnes of packaging waste each year.

TUV Product Service, part of the TÜV SÜD Group of companies with 1bn Euros turnover, in excess of 9,500 employees and 500 locations worldwide, is a leading producer of Compliance and Assurance Solutions for the environment sector.

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