Whether you’re a recently started up a business or a long-standing company, you may or may not be aware of the challenge of installing an effective waste management plan – to ensure that you’re disposing waste in the correct and a cost-efficient way.
Waste that’s thrown away, can cost the business 4.5% of its overall turnover according to CIPS, and in some more extreme instances, can account for up to 10% of a company’s overall gross profit.
This cost can impact a business if they’re not willing to put the time and effort in how they will dispose of their waste in the correct manner. 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.
Business responsibilities
According to the UK legislation and government requirements, businesses have key responsibilities when it comes to managing the disposal 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.
- 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 website.
- 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 and Storing waste effectively
In order to store waste securely, businesses should 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.
Waste disposal
For any non-hazardous waste that you move off site, you need a transfer note or a document that contains the same information such as an invoice.
If you wish to have waste removed on a regular basis, you must register online which then you can create a season ticket to account the waste that you will dispose of in future.
Your business and any third party that collect your waste will both need 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.
Lowering the cost of disposing waste in the UK
All companies have a common goal of bringing down external costs, including the cost of waste removal. However, this can be a leap in the dark if business owners are uncertain of how to do this effectively.
A rubbish removal Northern Beaches expert tells us to consider separating your waste and create a report with the results you find, this will allow you to monitor the materials, volume and cost of the waste you’re producing. From this you can set your strategy, highlighting your own targets and goals to ensure the best results possible when it comes to disposal.
Technically, environmentally and economically practicable otherwise known as TEEP is something that all businesses producing waste should be aware of. 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.
Legislation set by the European Union in 2015, the Waste Framework says that those who produce municipal and commercial waste are responsible for effective waste management. They can use a third party to achieve this, but businesses will continue to remain responsible.
There are many reasons as to why a business may need to separate the waste that they have produced and one which stands with the highest ethical standard is whether there will be an environmental benefit or reduce a negative that currently exists.
Measuring waste disposal
Teaming up with waste management providers, such as Reconony, who offer a skip hire service, allows you to use an online system that gives your business an overall view of your waste strategy — showing you the volumes and cost. Through waste management portals, each business can have tailored permissions that help provide them with an overview of waste statistics and management information.
Start by visually assessing how much waste your business produces, monitor how much waste your bins hold before collection to generate an idea of the amount of waste you produce. It could be beneficial for businesses to reduce the amount of waste collections they currently have and from this, they will be setting themselves the challenge of being more thoughtful with what they throw away and this will eventually lead them to make better decisions which in turn, will save them money. They will have to deal with the limited bin space they have for waste ensuring that every decision is important.
Analysing your waste in this way is vital, especially with landfill tax rising — a waste management strategy can help your business save money.
Landfill tax has been at a continuous climb and is expected to rise to £88.95 from the 1st of April 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.
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