Waste Duty of Care Code of Practice
The law requires anyone dealing with waste to keep it safe, make sure it’s dealt with responsibly and only given to businesses authorised to take it.
The ‘Duty of Care’ can be summarised as follows:
- You must prevent the illegal deposit, disposal or treatment of any waste that you have produced.6
- You must prevent waste from escaping from your control (leaking, blowing away, being stolen etc).
- You must ensure that you transfer waste only to authorised persons.
- You must ensure that any waste, which you transfer to another person, is accompanied by a written description. This description must be sufficient to allow others to appreciate the nature of the waste so that they can avoid committing an offence when they are managing it.
- Waste producers must segregate different types of waste so as to prevent mixing of incompatible materials or substances. An efficient waste segregation process can also help control the cost of waste disposal as it will ensure that material, which is relatively You must describe any waste your business produces before you send it for recycling and disposal.
Classifying your waste will help you:
- decide how to handle it
- complete the paperwork you must give waste contractors so they can manage your waste – this is part of your ‘duty of care’
You may need to meet additional requirements if you want to dispose of hazardous waste.
What to include in your description
Your description must include:
- the waste classification code, also referred to as LoW (List of Waste) or EWC (European Waste Catalogue) code – you can find some common classification codes in parts 2 to 6 of this guide
- whether it’s hazardous
- the type of premises or business where the waste was produced
- the name of the substance or substances
- the process that produced the waste
- a chemical and physical analysis
- any special problems, requirements or knowledge related to the waste
It is a fairly comprehensive process and failure to follow the guidelines can result in unlimited fines for the offender.
NWR Hygiene Group have a specialist Duty of Care division that can help you with this and a simple phone call to our customer support team will soon have you pointed in the right direction.
