Reducing waste, increasing recycling and re-use rates can radically reduce your waste
disposal costs and will really help our environment in the long term.

This mainly applies to our construction industry customers being the main user of
many different types of materials. What this means is that there are many
opportunities for construction companies to increase the amount of waste they
recycle and reduce costs.

How to increase your recycling rates:

This is all in the planning. We advise everyone with whom we speak, to separate
their waste streams. Recycling is made much harder if one waste stream is mixed
in with other waste streams. However, with this in mind, we do appreciate that
this depends on the amount of space and time you have to work with.

Examples of the main waste streams to separate into are:

Soil, Sand, Hard-core, Wood, Plasterboard, Metal, Mixed inert (soil, hard-core, clay, sand), Dry recyclables (paper, card, plastics etc).

This encourages recycling as it gives the waste contractor who is coming to collect the waste more options as to places they can take the waste to be disposed of, as well as that, as it is ‘clean’ (not mixed with any other waste type) they can take certain waste types to specialist facilities that can deal with that specific waste stream.

How this reduces your disposal costs:

Due to it being separated at source there is a lot less work for the waste handler to do. If the waste is not separated, to enable the company to recycle, the responsibility of separating falls to them, increasing costs for labour and time at least.

You will find that a good waste contractor should encourage you to recycle more and offer better prices for ‘clean’ waste streams.

Mention waste management to most people and they either don’t have a clue what you are talking about, or they really aren’t interested! It just sounds a load of rubbish, what do you care what other people do with stuff they don’t want?

However, once you start delving into what waste management is all about, then you
realise there’s a whole cycle of events going on and that it’s quite an
interesting and relevant topic to find out more about.

The basics of waste management

There are various aspects to waste management these include; monitoring, collection, transportation, processing, and disposal or recycling. When carried out properly, waste
management is an efficient and extremely environmentally friendly option and in
today’s world is something every conscientious company should acknowledge
responsibility for.

The Stages of waste management

Monitoring

In the first instance the  environment service is concerned with monitoring; this is to identify the type  of waste produced and in what quantity. With this information, they can then evaluate the processes they need to put into place to reduce the amount of
waste produced. Records are kept to see if methods put into place are working
and, if not, strategies can be changed and re-examined to make their
implementations more efficient.

Collection

Once the waste has been monitored and assessed it is time for the collection process. Skip bins and containers have to be emptied before they become too full for prevention of overspill. The amount of waste produced will dictate the size and number of containers
required and the frequency of collections. There are different containers for
each type of waste, some free standing, some specially designed onto the back
of vehicles, drums for hazardous liquid waste, tanks for acid or caustic waste,
collection bins for e-waste as well as bulk bins and skip bins for construction
site waste.

Transportation

Next in the cycle is organising the transportation of all waste products collected. Specially designed waste vehicles make scheduled collections and are responsible for safely transporting  waste to the landfill or treatment sites, where it will be treated and then
processed for recycling. Vehicles must meet safety standards and require a
license for this purpose, as waste can be a health hazard and even dangerous if
not handled correctly. Drivers and personnel connected with the transportation
are required to have the necessary training and experience to deal with any
potential danger.

Processing

Once the waste has been collected, it needs to be processed. This involves separating the waste collected, treating it and then packaging the raw materials and sending the
recyclable material to the various factories that are all part of the
designated procedure. Materials that can’t be recycled will be transported to a
landfill, and liquid and hazardous wastes will be disposed of safely.

Waste management is a puzzle to most people, but whether you run a small office or a large scale company it is a topic you should be researching actively.

Waste management is everyone’s responsibility.

According to the research by DEFRA, household waste (including leftover DIY material and abandoned electrical goods such as fridges) account for half of all fly-tipped rubbish in
England.

To summarise:

Anyone who is arranging for a contractor to go and clear waste, your own responsibilities under the duty of care means you are required to take the reasonable steps to ensure that people removing waste from your premises are authorised to do so.

Reasonable steps to take:

- Ask the waste carrier to provide you with their full address and telephone number prior to the arranged collection.

- Ask to see their waste carriers license issued by the environmental agency before they remove any waste.

- Either contact the environmental agency on 08708 506 506 for a free instant waste carriers validation check, alternatively you can check the register on their website.

As well as uninformed householders, organised criminal gangs also carry out fly-tipping, operating illegal waste disposal services for money.

There are two main ways of reporting fly tipping, depending on how much waste has been dumped. For large amounts – call the Environment Agency’s free 24-hour hotline, 0800 807060. For smaller amounts you need to call your local council. Alternatively you can inform the police, especially if you are concerned that a particular vehicle is
being used for fly-tipping.

Local councils now have more powers to penalise illegal fly tipping and duty of care offences under the Clean Neighborhoods and Environment Act 2005. Fixed penalty notices can be issued if people do not comply with their duty of care obligations. They could also be convicted and face up to five years imprisonment, a fine of up to
£50,000, or worse, both.

For a cleaner and healthier London please ensure you are taking the right steps to reduce fly-tipping.

Please check out our attached spreadsheet which quantifies the extent of the fly tipping problem across our city.