Red Bull’s wings clipped over recycling fraud

Energy drinks maker Red Bull has been hit with a record fine for breaching waste recovery and recycling laws.

The firm was fined £261,000 by Southwark Crown Court after it admitted not registering with the Environment Agency as a producer of packaging waste.

The company also confessed to not recovering or recycling packaging waste for eight years between 1999 and 2006.

In addition to the fine, Red Bull was ordered to pay court costs of £3,755 and unpaid Environment Agency registration fees of £6,854.

The fine is the largest waste-related penalty imposed on a firm in the UK, and follows a doubling in the amount of fines for waste crimes over the past five years.

The Environment Agency said the rising number of fines, which hit a total of £3 million in 2008, is evidence that its crackdown on waste cheats is working.

“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,” said Liz Parkes, the EA’s head of waste and resource management.

“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 Red Bull spokesperson said the company “takes its responsibility to the environment very seriously”.