What to do with Your Waste to Reduce Costs

The Environmental Protection Act 1990

The act imposes a duty of care on any person who imports, produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste or, as a broker, has control of such waste. Controlled Waste includes materials such as cardboard, packaging and plastics amongst others.

The duty requires such persons to ensure that there is no unauthorised or harmful deposit, treatment or disposal of the waste, to prevent the escape of the waste from their control or that of any other person, and on the transfer of the waste to ensure that the transfer is only to an authorised person or to a person for authorised transport purposes. Also that a written description of the waste is also transferred.

These Regulations also impose requirements on any person who is subject to the duty of care as respects the making and retention of documents and the furnishing of copies of them.

Breach of the duty of care or of these Regulations is a criminal offence. The duty of care and these Regulations do not apply to an occupier of domestic property as respects the household waste produced on the property.

Under the Duty of Care legislation producers of waste share the responsibility for the safe and legal disposal even after it has left their premises. Further details are available from your local Environment Agency office, although these are regionalised, direction can be found at www.environment-agency.gov.uk or www.hmso.gov.uk.