Who's taking care of your Waste ?
Who's taking care of your Waste ?
Editor
Waste Regulations have been updated and affect everyone in our industry. The Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 came into force on 15 June 2002. These new regulations implement the Landfill Directive (Council Directive 1999/31/EC), which aims to prevent, or to reduce as far as possible, the negative environmental effects of landfill. The regulations changed on 16th June 2004 having a major impact on waste regulation and industry in the UK.
One feature of the Directive requires that certain hazardous and other wastes, including liquids, will be prohibited from landfills. The legislation means that it is no longer possible to dispose of hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste. This has led to the number of sites that can accept hazardous commercial waste being drastically reduced. Disposal costs, therefore are continuing to rise.
The European Waste Catalogue (EWC) contains a detailed list of all wastes and those on the hazardous list include; oils, sludges from separators/interceptors, lead acid batteries, fluorescent tubes and filters, wiping cloths, absorbents and protective clothing contaminated by dangerous substances, e.g. oils.
Gone are the days when you could burn or bury waste. Now disposing of certain items, previously believed acceptable, in the general waste skip is not allowed. As an example, simply throwing aerosols away in general waste is now not acceptable. (They are not general waste but classified as Special Waste). One company did this with unfortunate results; aerosols exploded, the waste carrier's vehicle caught fire and the company was prosecuted resulting in a £2000 fine and £408 costs!
How many of us have thrown away florescent tubes as general waste? They are now on the hazardous list and should be disposed of properly. It's difficult sometimes trying to find someone reputable to handle such items and often, in small quantities.
Hazardous Waste Regulations.
These regulations came into force on 16th April 2005 and require that all that are producing hazardous waste must register with the Environment Agency. These regulations affect you and registration is necessary with the appropriate fee being paid. Do not be alarmed; your supplier can do registration for you. You will be registered and allocated their unique reference number (known as the "premises code").
The best option for hassle free waste management is to entrust your waste registration, removal and disposal to a reputable company with a fully licensed waste management operation covering all hazardous waste streams, employing HAZPAC trained personnel and operating livered vehicles. They will advise you on the level of service required and professionally deal with all waste, providing specially labelled, UN approved containers, full certification and audit trails. Does such a professional company handle all of your waste? Does your current service provider operate to these standards?
Help is at hand. One company that can offer help on all the above is Course Care with mainland UK coverage. Their Waste Away 3 service would suit most grounds and golf courses and covers all greenkeeping and grounds waste: used oil, chemical containers, filters, aerosols, grease cartridges and pails, antifreeze, wet batteries, contaminated wiper, oil absorbent, disposable gloves and spray suits, etc.
For a modest fee (fixed for 3 years) the company offers unlimited collections of any of the UN approved and labelled containers by trained operatives and with full certification and audit trails. A special florescent tube collection service is also offered and they can take care of waste catering oil from the kitchens too.
Course Care operate in an environmentally responsible way and, for instance, have installed a purpose made granulator at their Keighley base to process the thousands of plastic chemical containers. Instead of taking them to landfill, the machine turns the plastic into chips which are re-processed and turned into useful rot proof items for use around the course; fence posts, seating, walkway, sleepers etc. They are encouraging waste reduction by recycling and composting.
Their new composting machines will turn grass clippings, twigs, branches, leaves, green kitchen waste and all that cardboard from the pro-shop into compostable material.
Course Care - low call number: 0845 600 3572
Website: www.course-care.co.uk