In the wake of the case the Environment Agency pointed out that as a result of the actions of the company, there was less investment in the recycling industry than there should have been.
The company, based in Upper Rissington, Gloucestershire was ordered to pay £18,464.40 at Gloucestershire Magistrates' Court at a hearing on December 21 2007 for failing to recover and recycle more than 320 tonnes of packaging waste.
Magistrates ordered compensation of £6,086 to be paid to the Environment Agency for avoided registration fees from 1999-2005 and also imposed costs of £2378. 
Cotswold Company Ltd, of Bradford Road Burley-in-Wharfdale pleaded guilty to failing to register with the Environment Agency as a producer of packaging waste, and to failing to meet its requirements to recover and recycle packaging waste for 2004 and 2005. Similar offences between 1999-2003 were taken into consideration by the Court for sentencing.
Environment Officer Sue Gebbels said: “The money raised from compliance with this legislation goes directly to the recycling industry and the failure by this company to ensure they met their responsibilities means that there was less investment in the recycling industry than there should have been.
Responsibility
“There is information available to businesses to ensure they meet they environmental responsibility. It is important companies take this responsibility seriously to stop the tonnes of packaging piling up in the UK's limited landfill sites.
The Agency had written to The Cotswold Company requesting details of their packaging usage in January 2006, as part of normal checks on companies. A reminder was sent on February 2006, but after no response was received a notice was served on the company in April of that year.
In a response in May, the company said its annual turnover was £18m and the amount of packaging handled as over 12 tonnes. However, this amount only included packaging that was purchased on the company's behalf by a distribution company, and not packaging already on the goods, the Environment Agency has explained.
Trouble
Agency officers went to the Cotswold Company in July 2006 to explain the regulations and to assess whether the company did handle more waste or not, and it was later asked to supply further information about the amount of packaging it handled by the 28 August. But the company, said the Agency, then sent it a fax “stating that it was having trouble obtaining this information”.
Following a warning sent on the 6 September, the company eventually sent information stating that it handled over 168 tonnes of packaging on 28 September 2006. It then appeared that the company might have been liable to have been making contributions to a suitable compliance scheme since 1997, said the Agency. It added that the company had gone on to register under the regulations in 2006.
Regret
Gerald Dawson, managing director of the Cotswold Company, told letsrecycle.com: “We regret we ever breached the regulations. We were ignorant of the law and were prosecuted for this ignorance rather than actually seeking to avoid the law. The moment we became aware of the rules we applied for registration and we complied for 2006.”
Mr Dawson added that the Cotswold Company had since become acquired by a larger firm, Findel, which is fully registered under the packaging waste regulations.
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