How can companies implement an effective waste management plan
Whether you’re a long-established firm, or a new business, waste management is always a challenge.
Wastage, as in what the company throws away can accumulate the cost of up to 4.5% of their turnover according to CIPS and even in worse scenarios, 10% of its gross profits.
These costs can impact many businesses, if they’re not disposing their waste properly. 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.
With leading provider of skip hire, Reconomy we look at how your business can dispose of its waste in the proper manner and how to implement an effective waste manage strategy that can save your business money.
Company Responsibilities
The UK legislation and government stipulates that companies have a key responsibility to manage their waste and dispose of it properly.
These requirements should be met by businesses:
- Adopt the Waste Hierarchyprinciples 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.
Organising your waste and storing it
For waste to be safely and securely stored, companies need to:
- 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 company waste
To remove non-hazardous waste from your premises, you would either need a transfer note, or a document that contains the same information such 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 company and the third-party collector both need to 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 costs of waste
All businesses aim to reduce the disposal cost of their waste. However, this can be a leap in the dark if business owners are uncertain about how to do this effectively.
One solution is segregation however, you will first need to assess 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 important for companies 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.
Otherwise, companies can also get equipment for self-disposal and recycling of business waste, i.e., if they are working on a large scale. In that case, a company can consult Doyle Machinery or a similar recycling equipment firm to get the necessary tools and set up a recycling unit.
The EU legislation introduced EU Waste Framework in 2015, which will likely be adopted by Britain after Brexit. It 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 advancing, waste management companies are more likely to use an online automated system that can help monitor company waste volumes and spend – giving the client a greater visibility 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.
As a company, it may be best to assess how much waste is being collected, and setting a target for be more thoughtful on what you throw away, you should find that this will lead to making better decisions and eventually save you money.
These evaluations are crucial for waste management solutions that aim to save your organisation money, especially as the price of landfill tax rises.
On the 1st April 2014, the price per tonne of landfill was priced at 80 and had risen in 2016 to 86.40 and further in 2018 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/
