360 Environmental Limited

Producer Responsibility

Waste legislation

Other legislation

Other

Duty of Care

Are you affected?
What is required?
Transfer notes
Current situation
Further information

Are you affected?

Any business that produces, handles or disposes of controlled waste has a statutory obligation to under the Duty of Care Regulations.

If you produce waste, but are not responsible for its disposal eg an office block where there are communal bins in the basement managed by a facilities management company, then the point of Duty of Care in relation to containment and transfer notes sits with the facilities management company. However, you are still responsible for making sure the waste is being correctly handled.

‘Controlled waste’ is effectively all waste that arises from business premises. This includes waste that is collected for recycling as well as waste that is disposed of to landfill or incineration.

What is required?

The Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 were brought in under powers conferred under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. They require that:

Waste is stored correctly ie it must be properly contained
It is only collected by registered waste carriers (unless being moved by the waste producer’s own vehicles)
All collections are covered by a valid Transfer note that includes a written description of the waste to enable anyone handling it to do so safely and appropriately
Records of transfers of waste are kept for at least two years
Waste is only taken to an authorised facility that has the necessary waste management licensing - ignorance of the disposal site is no defence if your waste is found flytipped.

Defra have issued a Code of Practice which describes the full requirements of Duty of Care in detail. They have also published a brief Guide.

Under the EPA Section 33, it is an offence to dispose with waste - such as burning construction waste or tipping waste to land - unless it is at a site with a waste management license.

Transfer notes

A transfer note is a legal document that must be signed by both parties between whom the waste is being transferred. It must contain the following:

Describe the waste you are passing on
Contain a code that describes the waste or wastes
Show how the waste is contained, for example is it loose, in a sack, skip or drum?
Identify the amount of waste being passed on, for example the number of sacks or other containers, the volume of waste or it’s weight
List your name and identify that you are the producer of the waste;
List the name of the person you are passing the waste to and their status, for example a registered waste carrier, including their registration number
Give the address where you passed the waste to the other person as well as the date and time that you gave him the waste
Be signed by both parties and be kept for at least two years. For repeated transfers, where the description of the waste and all the circumstances remain the same, a ‘season ticket’ i.e. one note which can last up to 12 months, can be used to cover all transfers.

Generally, your waste collection company should generate the transfer note, but although they might complete it, you still have to sign it AND ARE THEN LIABLE IF THE INFORMATION ON IT IS WRONG.

The biggest problem with transfer notes is generally the waste description. This should include both a brief written description and a List of Wastes (LOW) or European Waste Catalogue (EWC) Code or codes, but where a description has been given, the waste should not change from that description. The most common type of waste is general mixed commercial waste. This is covered by the EWC code 20 03 01, but if a pub is having building work, for instance, the builders could not use the pub’s normal waste bin for their waste as it needs a different description.

Current situation

The Duty of Care requirements are currently under review. The government issued a consultation document in June 2008 but as yet, has not indicated what the final outcome of the review will be. It is expected that the changes will come into force from April 2009 and amongst other things, will require waste producers that transfer waste on their own vehicles to be registered as waste carriers. 360 Environmental will keep you informed of changes.