Every establishment and business across the United Kingdom has a responsibility for the waste and they produce and how they deal with it. At Ethical Partnership we are working with the ‘Right Waste, Right Place’ campaign to deliver guidance and support, ensuring that you not only protect the environment, but comply with the law.
Since the Environment Protection Act became law in 1990, establishments and businesses are required to take responsibility for the waste that they produce and ensure that it is handled and disposed of correctly. This is your Duty of Care and it starts from the moment you produce the waste and may continue beyond the waste contractor you engage to deal with it. You need to satisfy yourself that not only have you managed the waste you produce correctly on your site, but also that the person that it is given to next is permitted to deal with it and that it will be handled correctly. This Duty of Care can be legally enforced and avoiding the issue can result in large fines.
When it comes to taking responsibility for the waste, there is essentially three links in the chain to consider: the waste producer, the waste carrier and the waste receiver.
Most businesses and establishments fit into the category of waste producer through the production of waste in their business activities. At this level, every effort should be made to recycle and reuse waste, but when this is not possible then it needs to be recovered and disposed of properly.
There are a large number of registered waste carriers in the UK who have responsibility for picking up waste from the producer and transporting it to a site where it can be where it can be recovered or disposed of correctly. Often these are the same as the waste receivers, with many offering a dual-role.
The waste receivers are sites legally licensed and permitted by the Environmental Regulators such as the Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. They take the waste from the carrier and either reuse, recycle or dispose of the waste according to regulations and procedures associated with the specific waste and area.
In accordance with your Duty of Care, you need to make sure that the other parties further up the chain are licensed to deal with the waste that you produce. Further checks need to be made if there are any concerns that the waste is not being handled in accordance with the duty of care.
From the moment you produce your waste your Duty of Care starts. As such, as soon as it is produced the waste needs to be considered by identifying what the components are and what to do with them. This ensures that it is kept secure and segregated from waste which falls under a different category, such as hazardous or non-hazardous. It needs to be described accurately so that those who were not concerned with its production can take the necessary safety precautions. You need to have some level of control over your waste contractors and ensure that you have checked the necessary permits of the waste carriers and receivers.
So why do you need Ethical Partnership?
At Ethical Partnership, our business is focused around our values. In everything that we do, we seek to protect and conserve the natural environment and finite resources of the planet and reflect this in the way we advise our clients, design schemes and select our partners. When you come to us, we will provide audits and training in line with the ‘Right Waste, Right Place’ campaign to ensure that you comply with your Duty of Care. This means you will not only be protecting the environment for generations to come, but can result in larger profit margins for your business. Alongside this, it helps ensure that you will not get fined for the illegal mishandling of waste. So contact us today for a no-obligation quote to help you maximise profit, and together protect the environment for years to come.
You can find out more about the campaign by visiting the Right Waste Right Place homepage.