Background

In pursuit of their vision to make Scotland a zero waste society, the Scottish Government has now issued its draft proposals in the form of the Zero Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2011 and the Environmental Duty of Care (Scotland) Regulations 2011, to implement certain key recommendations contained within its Zero Waste Plan for Scotland, which was published in June of 2010.

How will this affect your business?

In order to stimulate the re-use of recyclable material and as a long term goal of preserving natural resources, the new legislation will extend the duty of care on all waste producers to actively separate their waste for disposal. Waste producers will no longer be allowed to operate a mixed waste disposal policy – gone are the days of the single black bin approach.

A failure to comply with these proposals can in certain circumstances lead to a maximum fine of £5,000 not to mention the adverse publicity that a breach will attract.

Key Changes

Whilst many waste producers are enthusiastic recyclers and some businesses already go further, recognising waste as a commodity capable of fuelling biomass or energy from waste projects, the new regulations will force a change in how waste is managed.

  • Separate source segregation of key recyclable materials – glass, metal, plastic, textile, paper and card (termed 'recylable wastes') must be presented separately for collection from all other waste. Thankfully, this will not require separate containers for each of the listed recyclable wastes, as they can be co-mingled in one container. However, separately collected waste commands higher prices in the recylates market so your waste carrier may pass this cost benefit on to you if you are prepared to avoid co-mingling and practice a little source segregation yourself.
  • Separation of food waste - companies that are involved in food production, food retail, food distribution, food wholesaling or food preparation will be required to present food waste for collection separately from all other wastes in a dedicated container.
  • A duty to describe your waste - in order to ensure that separated waste is not contaminated by mixing post collection, there is a duty to label your waste. This information will then be transferred onto the transfer note you and your waste carrier will sign. Copy transfer notes must be kept for a period of 2 years. However, to reduce paperwork, a 12-month 'season ticket' system can be used to manage regular collections of the same type of waste from the same waste carrier.
  • A duty to check your waste carrier is authorised - you should ask to see your waste carrier's registration certificate and check this against the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) register. This check should be done at least once a year as registrations are often renewed annually by SEPA.

Time for Change

The draft proposals seek to introduce separate source segregation of recyclable (waste glass, metal, plastic, textile, paper and card) and separate food waste collection by 2013, so there is time to plan the necessary changes to your waste management policies.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.