Young’s Brewery in Wandsworth has blamed an “administrative error” after it was fined £30,751 for failing to comply with recycling regulations.

The company - pleaded guilty at South Western Magistrates Court on Thursday for failing to comply with the Producer Responsibility Obligations (PRO) - which deals with packaging waste - regulations 2007.

Under the PRO, companies which have an annual turnover in excess of £2m and handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging a year must register with the EA or a compliance scheme.

Young’s is situated in Osier’s road, Wandsworth Town, and has a long history in the borough.

It also uns more than 200 pubs across the south of England, was ordered to pay £27,000 for six offences after the Environment Agency (EA) estimated it had avoided costs of £20,812 by not registering and purchasing the correct amount of packaging recovery notes.

In addition it was ordered to pay the EA compensation of £1,552 and £2,199 costs.

Elaine Cory, investigating officer for the EA said: “Although Young's had previously registered and complied with the regulations, this case serves as a reminder to companies obligated under the packaging regulations to ensure that they remain compliant with the regulations.”

A spokesman for Young’s said: “Young’s takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and is therefore disappointed to have found that some of its administrative procedures relating to recording its recycling packaging waste were not as thorough as they should have been.

“Upon realising that we were not wholly compliant with the 2007 regulations the company immediately sought to bring this matter to the attention of the EA and co-operated fully with them.

“We accept the ruling, regret the genuine oversight that resulted in us failing to register with the EA and have renewed our membership of a registered compliance scheme to ensure these administrative errors don’t happen again.”

Young’s closed Wandsworth’s historic Ram Brewery site in 2006. Brewing began in 1581, making it the oldest site in the UK where beer was produced continuously.