Shire foods hit by £3,000 fine after packaging breach

- Published: 27 October, 2006

A Midlands meat company has been fined £3,000 for not correctly recycling its waste packaging.

Shire Foods of Warwick admitted breaching the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations, during a hearing before Leamington Spa magistrates.

The court heard that over a four year period Shire Foods, a specialist manufacturer of savoury pies,pasties and sausage rolls, had avoided recovering or recycling more than 400 tonnes of packaging avoidingcosts in the region of £9,000. The company was fined £1,500 with £1,500 costs.

Speaking after the case a spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said:"An enormous amount of packaging is sent to landfill each year in the UK.

The aim of these Regulations is to reduce this figure by ensuring that a significant proportion of this packaging is recovered and recycled."