Fortnightly Bulletin – 7th August 2023
7 August 2023
Legislation
Environmental Offences (Fixed Penalties) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2023
These regulations increased fixed penalties for a range of offences in England.
The offences affected include littering, graffiti, fly-posting, the harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of waste and household duty of care breaches. The penalties present an alternative to prosecution.
Fixed penalties for the following offences have increased, as follows:
- Littering, graffiti and fly-posting: not less than £65 and not more than £500,
- Distribution of printed matter without consent: not less than £65 and not more than £150,
- Harmful deposit, treatment or disposal, etc. of waste: £1000 (increasing from £400),
- Household duty of care breaches: £600 (increasing from £400).
Source: gov.uk
For the full legislation, click here.
Guidance
Retaining shock absorbers and airbags in end of life vehicles (ELVs): RPS 195
On 3 October 2019, a Regulatory Position Statement (RPS) on when you can store intact shock absorbers and undeployed airbags in otherwise fully depolluted ELVs on hardstanding, was published. On 25 July 2023, the RPS was updated to extend the expiry date of this RPS until 1 July 2026, and also include a condition that records must be kept for three years that show you have complied with this RPS.
Source: gov.uk
For the full guidance, click here.
Articles of Interest
Plastic bag use falls by more than 98% after charge introduction
More than seven billion harmful plastic bags have been prevented from blighting our streets and countryside thanks to the single-use carrier bag charge, new figures announced by Environment Minister Rebecca Pow on 31 July 2023.
A 5p charge was first introduced in supermarkets in 2015. Since then, usage at the main retailers – Asda, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, The Co-operative Group, Tesco and Waitrose – has dropped by more than 98%.
The average person in England now buys just two single-use carrier bags a year from these businesses, compared with around 140 in 2014 before the charge was introduced.
The number of single-use carrier bags reported as sold by the main retailers was 133 million in 2022/23, down from 197 million in 2021/2022, representing a reduction of 33%.
In 2021, the charge was increased to 10p and extended to all businesses. This has helped bring the number of bags used down by more than 35% from 627 million in 2019/20 to 406 million in 2022/23.
Source: gov.co.uk
For the full article, click here.
Fines and Prosecutions
Tyre company hit with £100,000 fine for breaking rules in Northants
One company exceeded the amount of waste they were legally allowed to deposit at a separate tyre company’s site. They deposited thousands of tyres over the course of a year without checking that the tyre company’s site was authorised to accept those tyres.
The tyre company had two exemptions to store waste and mechanically treat end-of-life tyres. However, it did not have an environmental permit to store or treat large numbers of tyres on site and was required to keep these to a minimum (40 tonnes over seven days).
Prosecuting for the Environment Agency, solicitor Sarah Dunne, told the court that [the company depositing the tyres] had shown “wilful blindness.” She said it was “common knowledge that there is a fire risk from the storage of waste tyres and that any responsible company should be aware of the regulations.”
EA officers also found that the records of the delivery and transfer of the waste tyres of the company depositing the tyres were incorrect and, therefore, breaching statutory regulations
Source: gov.uk
For more information, click here.
Online Learning and Events
World water week 2023
20th – 24th August 2023, Stockholm and online
World water week 2023 is focussed on innovation at a time of unprecedented challenges. The theme Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World invites us to rethink how we manage water. Which ideas, innovations, and governance systems will we need in a more unstable and water scarce world?
For further information, click here.
Net zero festival
31st October – 1st November, Business Design Centre, London
Hosted by BusinessGreen, the Net Zero Festival will bring together over 1,000 senior business executives, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and campaigners over two days to explore how to navigate the defining economic, political, and technological trend of the age and work together to accelerate the net zero transition.
This year’s festival will build on the success of last year’s event, which brought together a host of leading experts in the net zero transition, including Chris Skidmore, MP (who used the event to formally launch the Net Zero Review), Catherine McKenna, Head of the UN’s High Level Expert Group on Net Zero, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)’s Rain Newton-Smith, and the Climate Change Committee (CCC)’s Chris Stark, among many others.
