Walsh Mushrooms Group has made a payment to the Marine Conservation Society of £54,880.33 following a breach in their packaging obligations under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations SI 2007/871.
Under those Regulations, any company with a turnover of £2m or more in a year and which handles more than 50 tonnes of packaging materials a year must register with the appropriate agency, recycle packaging waste and provide a certificate of compliance. It is designed to make sure companies take responsibility for the packaging and packaging materials they handle.
Despite falling under scope of the Regulations, Walsh Mushrooms Group did not register between 2007 and 2017 and had not implemented proper recycling practices. During that period, it is estimated that around 9,000 tonnes of packaging had been handled.
However, instead of other sanctions such as prosecutions of formal fines, enforcement undertakings can be offered for such breaches instead. An enforcement undertaking is a voluntary agreement, albeit legally binding, proposed by a business which ensures legal compliance moving forward, which results in the business acknowledging responsibility for the offence and which allows those directly impacted by past offences to benefit - i.e. through a financial donation. It is a way of acknowledging that offences were not necessarily intentional or overly polluting, but the offence is proportionally dealt with and criminal records are not produced.
Jenny Griffiths, Education Manager for the Marine Conservation Society, said "The enforcement undertaking from Walsh Mushrooms is being used to research, design and create new education materials to inspire action and ocean friendly behaviours from consumers and businesses throughout England."
