Red Bull hit with record fine for breaking waste rules

The legal and financial risks businesses face when they fail to dispose of waste correctly was highlighted yesterday with the release of new figures from the Environment Agency showing that the amount of fines imposed for waste crimes has doubled in the past five years to £3m last year.

The figures were released as the agency this week secured its largest-ever waste fine when a fine of £261,268 was imposed on energy drink company Red Bull after the company breached rules governing waste recovery and recycling. The company was also ordered to pay £3,755 in costs to the Environment Agency as well as compensation of £6,854.

The company pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to failing to inform the Environment Agency that it produced packaging waste and failing to recover or recycle that waste in line with its legal requirements. The offences took place for eight years between 1999 and 2006, although the company said that it had rectified the situation as soon as it realised it was a breach of waste rules.

The Environment Agency said that the increase in fines last year provided evidence that its recent crackdown on waste crimes is working.

The agency last year launched a new National Environmental Crime Team consisting of around 20 former detectives, intelligence officers and forensics experts, which has largely focused on organised waste crime. As a result, the agency prosecuted more than 450 waste cases last year, many resulting in large fines, and even prison sentences.

Considerable success has also been delivered in recent months with a £15,000 fine imposed on a West Midlands-based metal recovery company earlier this month for illegally exporting waste to China, and another £15,000 fine imposed on a building company guilty of treating thousands of tonnes of waste without a licence.

Liz Parkes, head of waste and resource management at the Environment Agency, said that the watchdog was committed to continuing its crackdown on firms that breach waste regulations and warned that those guilty of doing so could expect to face increasingly severe fines.

"This is not about people putting rubbish in the wrong bins – we concentrate on those individuals and companies whose illegal activities have the potential to cause serious damage to the environment," she said. "The rules on how to handle, transport and dispose of waste are in place to protect the environment and people’s health, in this country and abroad.

"The Environment Agency takes swift and decisive action against anyone who flouts these strict controls."

A spokewoman for the Agency added that the scale of the fines should act as "a huge deterrent" to those companies looking to lower their waste costs by using unlicensed waste management firms that attempt to undercut registered rivals.

"These fines show that the courts are taking environmental crimes increasingly seriously," she said. "If you breach the rules you will get caught and you will get hit with big fines and all the bad publicity that goes with that."