The National Trust is among three charities to be handed a share in £87,0000 contributions made by firms, who have been sanctioned by the Environment Agency for recycling regulations failures.

Also benefitting from the windfall is Surrey Wildlife Trust and Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Firms criticised include a tech business, drinks company and home furnisher, which have failed to comply with packaging waste regulations.

Marlow based IT firm Softcat plc has pledged to pay just over £35,800 to the National Trust after failing to comply with the law for more than a decade.

Surrey Wildlife Trust is being handed £45,088 by alcoholic drinks firm Sazerac UK Limited after waste packaging violations spanning two years from 2017 to 2019.

Meanwhile, furniture brand La-Z-Boy UK Limited is to give more than £5,700 to Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust, following its non-compliance with the regulations in 2020.

In all three cases they had failed to comply with the 2007 Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations, which were put in place to ensure businesses fund the recycling of packaging waste from their products.

“By failing to register with a compliance scheme and to take reasonable steps to recover and recycle packaging waste, the businesses also avoided paying a charge based on how much packaging they got through in the same period,” said the Environment Agency.

“The money paid to the charities will help provide and protect local wildlife habitats and wetland areas and improve people’s access to and enjoyment of these places.”

The Agency’s senior technical officer Jake Richardson added: “Any company handling more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year, and with a turnover of above £2 million, must register with the Environment Agency or a packaging compliance scheme, and meet their responsibilities for recycling waste packaging.

“If companies fail to meet their obligations under environmental law, we will take action to ensure that they change their ways.

“The Environment Agency accepted proactive enforcement undertaking offers from all of the companies, a type of civil sanction which allows businesses to make amends while demonstrating how they will comply with the law in future.

“The companies each agreed to register with a compliance scheme, revise internal processes and assign a responsible person.”

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