Waste Disposal

Learn more about Waste Disposal in England

How much waste do we produce in England?

England produces 34,740,000 however only manages to recycle 34,880,304 which is a recycling or reuse rate of 44.70%

In the grand scheme of things £3,600,000,000.00 is a substantial amount for the councils to spend on public waste management per year, however if divided by England's population of 56,000,000 it only works out to £64 per person, which again in the grand scheme of things is not that much. Questions could be asked that if sustainability is a top priority could more money be spent on waste management?

In the UK we approximately produce more than 200 million tonnes of waste every year and our waste recycling performance from waste clearances falls short of 50% which needs to be improved if we want to be like some of the leading environmental performing countries in Europe

What is my legal responsibility when hiring a contractor to carry out waste disposal in England?

We appreciate that most people in England are responsible, want to improve our current environmental situation we are in and want to stay within the law by handing over your waste to compliant waste removal companies operating in England. Reading this information allows you to understand your liability as well as the impact of your decisions, acting on it means you will be operating lawfully, as well as positively impacting England’s sustainability performance.

Not everyone understands their role in waste management. The information below states some information that will make it easier for you to manage your waste and to hire the right contractor.

Your Duty of Care begins when you produce the waste, it continues all the way through and doesn’t stop just because you have handed it over to a waste clearance company to deal with. Your duty of care applies to all waste types and you have a legal responsibility to choose a waste contractor and ensure that they are disposing of your waste properly. If your waste is not dealt with responsibly and is found to be fly-tipped you will be investigated with more authority than the waste disposal company for illegal waste activity, so choosing a dodgy waste clearance company can result in you receiving a fine of up to £5,000 and even criminal conviction.

If you are being investigated and cannot prove through the correct waste documentation such as a waste transfer note, then you will be given the notice to produce them within a certain amount of days. If you are unable to comply then legal proceedings will proceed.

Please see the implications below:
Offence - Duty of Care offence
Penalty - £300 fixed penalty notice or prosecution with a maximum £5,000 fine

Offence - Waste receptacle offence
Penalty - £110 fixed penalty notice or prosecution with a maximum £1,000 fine

Offence - Failure to produce a waste transfer note
Penalty - £300 fixed penalty notice or prosecution with a maximum £5,000 fine

Offence - Fly-tipping
Penalty - £400 fixed penalty notice or prosecution with an unlimited fine and up to 5 years’ in prison

How do I choose the right contractor for my waste disposal in England?

You chose the right contractor for your waste disposal by getting to know the risks associated with waste clearance. Obviously, anyone making a buying decision wants to ensure they chose the best, in this game the best can be defined in many ways, the best means:

1. The safest

Bringing a contractor into your premises and around your staff/family/customers could carry a range of risks and one of the most important issues you need to qualify is how safe the team works when carrying out the waste removal.

The following is a list of things a good waste contractor will have thought about or would have done:

- Their utmost to eliminate all risks associated with the waste clearance
- Adhere to certain management standards by having a thorough and routine training program around topics like health and safety etc
- Operates their waste removals under a Health & Safety Management system and if required can provide risk assessments for the work they are undertaking
- Holds certain accreditations to prove their credibilities such as CHAS or Safe-Contractor
- Is suitably insured for the work they are conducting to cover worst-case scenarios

2. The most compliant

Compliance is a huge topic to cover within the waste management world and the level of compliance differs amongst most operators. A contractor becomes compliant with waste disposal regulations in the following ways:

- Is licensed by the Environment Agency for the work they do
- Ensures they allow you to adhere to your duty of care by providing you with all the necessary paperwork from a waste collection which needs to detail the waste trail to ensure transparency from producer to a carrier to disposal, this includes:
- A Waste Transfer Note for ALL waste clearances which details the producer (you) the carrier (the waste contractor) and the disposal site (the waste transfer facility)
- A Consignment Notes for hazardous waste clearance (if disposed of from a business address)
- For more project-based or regular work waste and environmental reporting providing recycling, re-use and landfill figures
- Insurances are key for compliance too, the level of insurance a waste contractor is covered for should align with the level of work they are undertaking this includes:
- Public liability insurance
- Employer’s liability insurance
- Vehicle insurance

3. Highly Recommended

For this, you could do your research online and if you can’t find anything about the company then that is a worrying sign.

The major things to check are:

- The contractor’s credentials by looking up their company history on companies’ house
- Testimonials or references from other clients for similar work
- Online review centres and the feedback received by other people that have purchased the same service

What is defined as waste & what is waste management?

The correct definition of waste is anything that you decide to or are required to, discard. Even if the waste is given to another company or entity to be reused or recycled it is still considered as waste if it is no longer required by the person who produced it.

Waste management is defined as the waste removal, recovery and waste disposal. It also includes the management of the operations and the aftercare of disposal sites; however, it doesn’t stop there as it also includes the actions taken as a waste dealer or a waste broker.

Waste treatment is a huge part of the impact of the waste management process and includes waste recovery or waste disposal operations. Waste recovery: is where we are all aiming for and is classified once the waste operation results in waste being converted into and then serving as a useful purpose by replacing other materials.