Carluccio’s, the chain of Italian café restaurants and food shops, has been fined £15,000 for breaching packaging waste regulations.

The company pleaded guilty to failing to register with the Environment Agency as a producer of packaging and for failing to meet its requirements to recover and recycle packaging waste between 2004 and 2006. It also asked the court to consider similar offences in 2002 and 2003.

A spokesperson for Carluccio’s commented: “We regret the genuine oversight that resulted in us failing to register with the Environment Agency. As soon as we became aware of any breach, we immediately acted and have been fully compliant for the last two years.”

The Environment Agency calculated that the company had avoided costs of £16,778 by not registering or purchasing the correct amount of packaging recovery notes, as required by law since 2002. Carluccio’s also had to pay the Environment Agency compensation of £4,159 and £2,400 in costs.

The chain handles a variety of packaging, from wine bottles and jars to boxes, bags, pallets and shrink-wrap. It joined the Paperpak compliance scheme in February 2007.

Under the Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations, companies with an annual turnover of more than £2m that handle in excess of 50 tonnes of packaging a year must register with the Environment Agency or a compliance scheme.