Are you secure from waste crime?

All responsible companies understand their Duty-of-Care with respect to waste management. This involves ensuring that the company removing the waste is registered with the Environment Agency, and that the site receiving the waste has the appropriate permit. Yet prosecutions recently have shown how easy it is to fail this basic test.

For example, there are facilities that have in good faith dispatched product for reuse, later to discover illegal disposal has occurred with a significant amount of the material. We have seen cases where supposedly clean, recyclable plastic which is contaminated with hazardous waste is stored and reprocessed on unlicensed facilities. In the case of industrial packaging waste, a drum or IBC will usually have a product label which can immediately identify it back to the producer, yet there are cases recently where IBCs and drums contaminated with hazardous chemical waste and still showing the original labels are being stored illegally on unlicensed and unmade ground.

In any of these scenarios would you be happy with your company being involved in an Environment Agency prosecution trail? Add to this the criminal element – this article in Materials Recycling Weekly in May (https://www.mrw.co.uk/latest/entrenched-waste-crime-costs-england-600m/10019503.article) shows both the potential cost to “UK PLC”, but also the frightening extent to which criminality could be involved.

The legislation regarding empty packaging waste has changed recently, and even following the latest industry guidance from the Chemical Industries Association may not be straightforward. At Packaging Reuse, we have put together an in-house compliance team who can offer practical advice and solutions for your packaging waste and a bespoke permitted facility to handle it in accordance with the most recent standards. Our assessment and advice costs nothing, and may just help you avoid the potential pitfalls of failing to properly fulfil your Duty-of-Care with regard to your waste.