Trade Waste

A waste licence is necessary to transport business waste in any capacity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re simply transferring some rubbish from a job to the skip in your car, or are moving large amounts of company waste, doing so without a licence is illegal. Using a licensed waste carrier is essential to remove your trade waste.

In addition to a licence, you need to ensure that you follow trade waste disposal regulations. Companies are bound by law, known as ‘duty of care’, to properly dispose of their waste. This includes ensuring waste is safely stored, transported, and taken to the appropriate facility. These actions should be carried forward with the intention of causing minimal impact upon the environment.

This means you should:

• Securely store waste, particularly any potentially hazardous or liquid waste.
• Clearly label all waste.
• Separate waste appropriately.
• Ensure your waste is taken to a recycling centre or landfill by a licensed waste carrier.
• Keep track of all waste, making notes of when it has been collected.

Now more than ever, it’s important to dispose of trade waste safely and recycle when possible. Here are some top tips to reduce your trade waste:

• Consider composting – UK households produce around 4.5 tonnes of food waste each year, according to a recent study by the government’s waste advisory body. This doesn’t factor in the food waste produced by companies or businesses, meaning the overall figures will be much higher. As a result, you must find ways to effectively reduce food waste. One way you can do this is through composting. If you work in hospitality, you could also consider donating leftover food at the end of the day to local charities or food banks, as opposed to throwing it away.
• Donate – Plenty of surplus materials can be repurposed or reused in other capacities, and often don’t need throwing away. For example, if your company is manufacturing a product and you have lots of waste wood, contact a local furniture company to see if they need any extra supplies. You can also donate any leftover materials to charities or people in your local area.
• Go paperless – With technology continuing to advance, many companies have decided to go paperless. Most information can now be shared quickly and easily online without the need for paper. While it may not be possible to go completely paperless within your company, you should try to limit the amount of paper you use and always recycle your paper.
• Make smart purchases – Another way to handle your waste more effectively is by purchasing no more materials than you need. Pay attention to the kind of materials you often buy too much of, and limit your future purchases accordingly. You can always order more at a later date, should you need it. This can also help save you money in the long run. Make a conscious effort to only purchase products you can reuse multiple times before you need to dispose of them. Though it may be cheaper initially to purchase ‘single-use’ products, you’ll end up spending more money over time and damaging the environment as a result.
• Encourage your employees to take part – Another effective way to minimise trade waste is to encourage your employees to do the same. For example, introduce an in-house recycling scheme and encourage employees to be more mindful of how they dispose of waste both at work and at home, inciting positive change.

Proper trade waste disposal is vital to secure a better, brighter future for our planet. It may not be possible to recycle all kinds of trade waste yet, but there are plenty of ways to reduce the amount of waste we produce and ensure safe trade waste disposal. This can minimise the effect your business has on the planet.