Doncaster-based company pays £7,450 in enforcement undertakings
The Environment Agency announced on 14 October that it had accepted an enforcement undertaking from Doncaster-based Caswick Ltd for breaking packaging regulations.
Caswick specialises in the manufacturing of access and sealing products such as manhole entry points and sealant strips for the drainage and construction industries.
The Agency says Caswick failed to comply with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007 in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Caswick “is now complying with the regulations”, the Agency says, and has paid £7,450 to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to go towards its Crowle Nature Reserve and Epworth Nature Reserve projects.
Jake Richardson, senior technical officer for the Agency, said: “Caswick has acknowledged that by failing to comply with the regulations they avoided paying the Environment Agency’s annual registration fees, and they did not fund the recovery and recycling of packaging waste.”
The enforcement undertakings scheme allows businesses to avoid possible court action and instead make voluntary donations if they breach environmental regulations.
Paul Learoyd, chief executive of the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, said: “The donation by Caswick Ltd has been used at our Crowle and Epworth Turbary nature reserves to undertake essential management works.”
Warrens Group lobbies North East councils over food waste collections
Food waste recycling company Warrens Group is lobbying local authorities in the North East to support the region by becoming “leaders of household food recycling”.
With separate food waste collections set to become mandatory in 2023 under provisions contained within the Environment Bill, Kevin Quigley, commercial director at Warrens Group, has written to 12 North East councils to “advise” them on how to establish the service.
Mr Quigley said: “I’m in full support of the Environmental Bill. Once all households are recycling their food, they’ll see how much their spending can be reduced, having a huge impact on their finances and carbon footprint.
“What we are trying to achieve by working with local authorities in the North East as early as possible, is making sure that they are ready for the change and have an efficient and effective food waste collection service in place.”
A wholly owned subsidiary of BioCapital LTD, Warrens Group provides food waste collection services for businesses and schools across the North East. The company uses food waste to generate fuel via anaerobic digestion.
Recresco receives workplace safety accreditation
Glass recycling company Recresco has announced it was awarded ISO 14001 and 45001 accreditations in September as it looks to improve workplace safety.
ISO 14001 provides a framework for establishing an effective environmental management system to measure and improve a business’s environmental impact, while ISO 45001 focuses on the prevention of occupational injury and the protection of physical and mental wellbeing.
Janice Kempin, Recresco’s head of HR, said: “Operating within a high-risk industry, it is extremely important we take measures to prioritise the health and safety of our people.
“This accreditation not only provides reassurance to our customers and staff, but also helps to instil a robust safety culture within the business.”
Recresco, which says it already holds ISO 9001-2015, appointed a team of senior managers who completed training and worked with external auditors to complete a gap analysis and audit schedule designed to assess compliance.
The NQA Global Certification Body then completed audits of Recresco’s sites at Cwmbran and Ellesmere Port during the summer.
Suez ‘creates £2 billion in social value’ in 2020
Suez recycling and recovery UK claims it created £1.98 billion of ‘social value’ in 2020, up from £1.55 billion in 2019.
Suez defines social value as the sum of the various benefits to society that arise from the environmental, economic, and social impacts of any organisation.
In its sustainability report for 2020, the waste management company measured how much social value it created with its own ‘social profit tool’, which uses 88 performance indicators.
Suez claims one of the “main contributors” to the increase in social value was continued growth in employment. In March, 450 employees joined the company as it began a 10-year contract with the Somerset Waste Partnership (see letsrecycle.com story).
Increased household recycling as more people stayed at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, Suez says. The amount of material the company reused, recycled, composted, or recovered as energy rose to 4.46 million tonnes.
Of the £1.98 billion total, the societal benefit of Suez’s environmental impact was £226.51 million, while its social impact was £144.29 million and its economic impact was £1.61 billion.
The company claims it handled or processed recycling or waste produced by a third of the UK population in 2020.
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