Thompson Waste Company Policy

Commercial Waste Duty of Care

All businesses in England and Wales have a legal Duty of Care to ensure waste is disposed of responsibly. If you produce waste you must take all reasonable steps to keep waste safe. Businesses are not permitted to dispose of their waste at Recycling Centres for Household Waste as these are for domestic use only.

If you give it to someone else you must be sure they are authorised to collect, transport, process or dispose of it safely and legally.If you break the law you could be fined an unlimited amount.

Duty of care has no time limit as it extends until the waste has been finally disposed of or fully recovered. You are liable for your waste up until the point you receive certification confirming its disposal.

Businesses are legally required to keep waste transfer notes and certificates confirming disposal for a minimum of 2 years and could be asked to produce them at any time. If they don’t do this it is a criminal offence and could result in an on the spot fine or a conviction.

Duty of care

A key requirement of the duty of care is to complete waste transfer notes to document and describe all waste you transfer. To do this correctly you must know the industry you’re in using the ‘SIC Code’ – the Standard Industry Classification code for your industry.

Using EWC Codes

People need to accurately describe their waste to others for various reasons – for example, to say what kinds of waste they are allowed to handle (permitting) and what kind of waste is being handed over (duty of care).

The European Waste Catalogue allows standard descriptions to be used, which can then be understood by everyone. The European Waste Catalogue codes are transposed into UK law through The List of Wastes (LOW) Regulations.

The use of these codes is a legal requirement of the Duty of Care (DoC) legislation in the UK. A Waste Transfer Note must always contain a written description of the waste as well as the EWC code. This should be sufficient to enable the main components of the waste to be identified accurately.

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