A MOBILE phone company based in Hertfordshire was fined nearly £8,000 last week (June 10-June 14) for failing to recycle its packaging waste.

T-Mobile UK Limited, which was formerly known as One2One Personal Communications Limited, had the fine imposed on it after not complying with 1997 regulations.

These regulations require companies to take responsibility for the recovery and recycling of packaging.

The case was held at St Albans Magistrates' Court last Tuesday, when T-Mobile admitted it had been aware of its recycling obligations since 1998.

However, the company claimed the growing size of its operation meant that the matter could not be dealt with as quickly as it hoped.

The prosecution against T-Mobile was brought about by the Environment Agency because the company failed to comply up until November 2000.

The company pleaded guilty on all charges for failing to recover and recycle packaging waste and failing to register with the Environment Agency and was also charged for court costs.

Environment Agency officer Ms Amanda Barratt said: "These regulations were introduced in 1997 to encourage companies to reduce the amount of packaging they use and make increased efforts to recycle and recover packaging waste.

"The intense pressure on landfill space means that the agency is aiming to reduce waste as much as possible and actively seeks out companies which do not comply with the regulations."

The Environment Agency has also recently announced new objectives to try to encourage businesses to be "greener".

Over the next few years, the agency is hoping that businesses will begin to appreciate the benefits of the environment and have green concerns at the heart of their operations.

Some of the practices it hopes to see adopted are risk and incentive-based charging schemes that will reward companies which actively consider minimising risk to the environment and human health in their practices, aswell as improving attitudes in particular to pollution and waste disposal.

The agency also hopes to encourage businesses to adopt environmentally friendly methods of management.

June 18, 2002 11:00