Stiff penalties
The offences are ‘triable both ways’, meaning they could be prosecuted in either the magistrates’ courts or the Crown Courts. In the former, the maximum penalties are fines of up to £50,000 per offence, or up to five years imprisonment for something like illegal disposal of hazardous waste. In the latter, fines are unlimited and prison sentences can be up to five years per offence.
It is, however, unlikely ever to get to this point.
“I think it would be extraordinarily rare for a print company to be taken to court,” says Dalley. “For a director of a print company to be sent to prison, it would have to be something so extreme and so persistent that it would be almost inconceivable. I’ve found from talking to print companies that the most important thing is that they get to know their local regulator. What would happen is there’d be a dialogue and they’d ask you to do certain things and then, if you’re behaving properly and you do what they ask you to do, that’ll be the end of it. That’s the way it usually works. To be prosecuted you have to have done something fairly desperate.”
Nor is compliance especially prohibitive financially, usually being factored into other capital expenditure. There are costs associated with things such as storage of liquid chemicals like ink, but with continuous investment in new equipment, environmental compliance is just one component of that overall cost. It’s certainly a small price to pay to avoid the whole operation going down the drain.
So, while the environmental legislation in the UK may seem intimidating and ever changing, with the right advice and the right processes, it does not have to be a heavy weight on already overloaded shoulders. Closing your eyes to the regulations could get you in serious trouble, and embracing compliance is not just about keeping your nose clean – it should be remembered that eco compliance also brings wider cost and business benefits to companies too.
"Because of a fault on the equipment controlling emissions, the company was in danger of having the presses stopped."
Philippa Dempster, Freeth Cartwright
WHERE TO GET HELP
At BPIF workshops:
- Managers’ and supervisors’ responsibilities
- Environmental challenges for printers
- Waste management
- Legislation updates
- Process reviews
- Waste diagnostics
- Lean manufacturing
- How to calculate your carbon footprint
- How to reduce your carbon footprint
- How to offset carbon usage
- Training in lean-manufacturing principles
For more information visit britishprint.com »
