How can businesses implement an effective waste management plan
Whether you’re a new business or a long established company with experience behind it, industry waste management can prove to be quite challenging.
Disposable waste, which is what the business throw’s away can cost up to 4.5% of their turnover according to CIPS, and in some extreme circumstance can even cost the business 10% of its gross profits.
These costs can impact many businesses, if they’ve not got an appropriate plan put the place to dispose of their waste. With rising landfill taxes, as well as recycling and sustainability becoming a main concern within ethical business principles, creating a reliable waste management solution is more important than ever for any forward-thinking business that is looking to make a change.
Working together with Reconomy, a leading provider of 8 yard skips and waste management solutions, we advise on how your business can dispose of its waste appropriately and also implement an effective waste management strategy that can save your business money.
Responsibilities
As stipulated by the UK legislation and government, businesses have a key responsibility to manage their waste and dispose of it in an appropriate manner.
The requirements that should be met by businesses are as follows:
- Adopt the Waste Hierarchy principles in order to keep waste to a minimum by preventing, reusing, recycling, and recovering waste where possible.
- Store or sort waste securely in a safe environment.
- Complete a waste transfer note for each load of waste that leaves the premises.
- Check to establish whether your waste carrier is registered. This can be done by visiting the official Environment Agency
- Do not let your waste carrier dispose of waste illegally. As a producer of waste, the legal responsibility for safe and correct disposal falls on you, and not the waste carrier. You have a responsibility to ensure safe disposal through an auditable document trail.
Sorting waste and storing it
In order for waste to be safely and securely stored businesses are required as standard:
- Use suitable and EU-approved containers to prevent leakage.
- Label containers in a way which clearly stipulates what type of waste they contain.
- Use waterproof covers — where appropriate — so that no contaminated run-offs are created.
- Use lockable containers to safeguard your waste.
Disposing the business waste
In order to remove non-hazardous waste from your premises, you will need a transfer note or a document that contains the same information such as an invoice. You should register online with the appropriate services if you wish to fill in a waste transfer note, or you can create a season ticket for a series of loads that will occur in the future.
Your business and your third-party waste collector, need to both do the following:
- Fill in the sections of the note that applies to them.
- Sign it.
- Keep a copy for two years.
- Be able to present it to an enforcement officer from the local council or the Environment Agency, if requested.
Reducing the cost of disposable waste
The aim for most businesses, is to reduce the disposal cost of their waste. However, this can be a leap the dark if business owners are uncertain on how to do this effectively.
Segregation is a solution – However, you will first need to monitor your waste and conduct a report on the volume, material and cost. From this you can set your strategy, highlighting your own targets and goals to ensure the best results possible when it comes to disposal.
It’s also important for businesses to be aware of TEEP – technically, environmentally and economically practicable. This determines whether a business should segregate and store various types of produced waste within the business premises prior to its collection by a waste management contractor you have teamed up with.
The EU Waste Framework, which was introduced by EU legislation 2015, and will likely be adopted by Britain following Brexit, addresses that commercial and municipal waste producers are obliged to manage their waste correctly. They can use a third party to achieve this, but businesses will continue to remain responsible.
Measuring the company’s waste
With technology advancements, waste management companies are likely to use online automated system that can help monitor business waste volumes and spend – giving a greater insight for clients on their waste plan. Through waste management portals, each business can have tailored permissions that help provide them with an overview of waste statistics and management information.
It may be best to assess how much waste your business produces before going to a waste management contractor, as it would be worth gaining a visual on how much waste your company is disposing on a regular basis; monitoring the bins over the week until they’re collected and noting how full they are before being collected.
For your business, it may be beneficial to reduce the amount of times the waste is collected, by setting a target to be more thoughtful with what you throw away, which should eventually lead to making better decisions for your business and save money. Waste companies also help you evaluate your needs and costs. A resource for a WM Waste skip bin hire is available as an example.
These evaluations are crucial for waste management solution that aims to save an organisation money, especially as the price of landfill tax rises.
The price per tonne of landfill was priced at £80 on 1st April 2014, and had risen to £84.40 in 2016, again to £88.95 in 2018.
With the cost of landfill waste rising year or year, it’s clear that businesses need to ensure that their waste solution system is driven towards recyclable methods to keep the costs of landfill waste to a minimum.
Sources
https://www.gov.uk/managing-your-waste-an-overview/your-responsibilities
https://www.gov.uk/managing-your-waste-an-overview/sorting-storing-waste
https://www.gov.uk/managing-your-waste-an-overview/waste-transfer-notes
https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-recycling-business-waste
https://www.cawleys.co.uk/teep-waste-legislation/
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/environment-agency
https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/environment/waste-tips
https://www.cips.org/Documents/About%20CIPS/Develop%20Waste%20v3%20-%2020.11.07.pdf
http://www.letsrecycle.com/prices/efw-landfill-rdf-2/
http://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/waste-sector-creates-6-8bn-uk-defra-claims/
https://www.reconomy.com/portal#benefits
