Legislation

Businesses are affected by a range of legislation relating to how they produce, handle and treat the waste created both directly by their employees and within their workplace in general.

Key among these is the duty of care. This places a legal responsibility on businesses to ensure that they produce, store, transport and dispose of their business waste without harming the environment. The duty of care applies to all controlled waste, which includes both household and commercial & industrial, or C&I waste.

Duty of care

Office recyclingThe requirements of the duty of care apply to the storage and transport of waste, including needing to check a business’ waste is being dealt with by an authorised waste carrier. Businesses must also complete waste transfer notes to document all waste they transfer from their site.

Waste and recycling management services for businesses are offered by both waste management companies and local authorities. An increasing number of councils are providing business, or trade, waste collection services. In 2010, 65% of councils offered a service for residual waste and 43% offered a recycling service.

Permitting

Businesses which are involved in waste management are also subject to the environmental permitting regime. In England this means they could have to apply for an environmental permit or, for some activities, an exemption from permitting. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the system is managed by waste management licensing and pollution prevention and control permitting.

Producer responsibility

Several pieces of government and European legislation also place further responsibilities on businesses.

These include producer responsibility legislation such as the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, the Packaging Waste Directive, the Batteries Directive and the End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Directive. As well as placing a financial responsibility on the manufacturers of new products to fund the collection, treatment and recycling of waste materials, certain types of business often have a major role to play as a key avenue for the return of material.

For example, retailers selling more than one pack of four AA portable batteries a day have a legal obligation to provide free in-store take-back of any waste portable batteries from end users.

Landfill tax

However, businesses are largely unaffected directly by the major legislative drivers which aim to divert waste from landfill and recycle more such as the European Waste Framework Directive and the Landfill Directive,

Instead, the main push for them to divert material from landfill comes from landfill tax, a levy which must be paid on every tonne of waste sent to landfill. First introduced in 1996, the tax currently stands at £48 a tonne for ‘active’ waste and £2.50 a tonne for ‘inactive’ waste.

For more details on the waste legislation affecting businesses, please consult the navigation on the left.

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