LAW
WHAT’S
REQUIRED OF YOU TO COMPLY WITH LEGAL AND HEALTH & SAFETY LEGISLATION
Who’s taking care of your Waste?
WASTE Regulations have been subject to recent change affecting everyone in our business and the words Hazardous Waste are now commonplace. There are no less than eight pieces of legislation regarding hazardous waste;
Landfill Regulations: These came into full effect on 16th July 2004, coupled with Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC) they aim to prevent, or to reduce as far as possible, the negative environmental effects of landfill. One feature of the Directive requires that certain hazardous and other wastes, including liquids, will be prohibited from landfills. The legislation means that it is no longer possible to dispose of hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste. This has led to the number of sites that can accept hazardous commercial waste being drastically reduced. Disposal costs, therefore are continuing to rise, often with the result that these are being passed on to you, the customer.
Hazardous Waste Regulations: These regulations came into force on 16th April 2005 and require that all that are producing hazardous waste must register with the Environment Agency (EA). These regulations affect you and registration is necessary with the appropriate fee being paid. Most have already complied but, if not, your supplier can carry out the registration for you. For example, customers of Highspeed / Course Care have all been registered and allocated their unique reference number (known as the “premises code”).
Under the regulations, all waste must be “consigned”. You may prefer, as most do, to allow your waste contractor to complete consignment notes on your behalf. Do remember, however, that the responsibility for ensuring part A and B of the consignment notes are completed correctly, rests with you. The Hazardous Waste Regulations have
equipment, audiovisual equipment, lighting, electrical and electronic tools, toys, leisure and sports equipment. Already a number of waste management companies are accepting these items.
are the two remaining pieces; Waste Incineration Directive (WID). This concerns incineration plants and The Agricultural Waste Regulations which comes into force on 15th May 2006 and will extend the present regulations to that sector, requiring compliance from farms. This may be of interest to farm-owned golf courses.
Included in the Hazardous waste legislation
The Waste Oil Directive (WOD): These regulations have been in force since 1987 to ensure safe management of waste lubricating oils. Nearly every waste management company includes waste oil in their “package”. Some, however, will not take one barrel of oil because of the high disposal costs but prefer to take three barrels!
New Noise at Work Regulations
ON April 6th, the new Control of Noise at Work Regulations came into force. The regulations replace the existing Noise at Work Regulations 1989 for all industries in Great Britain except music and entertainment. The Regulations put the emphasis on identifying measures to eliminate or reduce risks from exposure to noise at work rather than simply relying on hearing protection, although this may also be needed in the short term.
Regulations are to lower exposure action levels. These are now lowered by 5 dB in comparison to the 1989 Regulations, to 80 dB for the lower exposure action value and 85 dB for the upper exposure action value. Simple rules of thumb that may indicate you have a noise problem are: • You’re surrounded by intrusive noise for most of the working day
• You have to raise your voice to be heard by someone just 2 metres away, for at least part of the day
So, gone are the days when you could burn or bury waste. Now disposing of certain items, previously believed acceptable, in the general waste skip is not allowed. As an example, simply throwing aerosols away in general waste is now not acceptable. One company did this with unfortunate results; aerosols exploded, the waste carrier’s vehicle caught fire and the company was prosecuted resulting in a £2000 fine and £408 costs! Fines for non-compliance with the Hazardous Waste Regulations can be £5000 and/or up to two years in prison if a Magistrates Court convicts. Serious cases may be tried at Crown Court where there is no limit on fines imposed.
replaced the Special Waste Regulations but now include certain waste that was not included in the old regulations, namely; fluorescent tubes, TV's, computer monitors and unde-polluted end of life vehicles (covered under the End of Life Vehicle (ELV) legislation.)
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) legislation: Takes matters further. Although not law at present, consultation on the regulations and guidance began in July 2004. Items included are; household appliances, IT and telecoms
The best option for hassle free waste management is to entrust your waste registration, removal and disposal to a reputable company with a fully licensed waste management operation covering all hazardous waste streams, employing HAZPAC trained personnel and operating liveried vehicles. They will advise you on the level of service required and professionally deal with all waste, providing specially labelled, UN approved containers, full certification and audit trails. Does such a professional company handle all of your waste? Does your current service provider operate to these standards? One company that can offer help on all the above is Course Care with mainland UK coverage. low call number: 0845 600 3572 Website:
www.course-care.co.uk Further guidance:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/waste/spe cial/
index.htm
• You use noisy powered tools or machinery for more than 30 minutes a day
• Your work causes impacts such as hammering, pneumatic impact tools, etc.
The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 require employers to:
• Assess the risks to their employees from noise at work
• Take action to reduce the noise exposure that produces those risks
• Provide their employees with hearing protection if they cannot reduce the noise exposure enough through other methods (making hearing protection available on request at 80 dB and ensuring it is worn at 85 dB)
• Make sure the legal limits on noise exposure (87 dB daily or weekly exposure or peak sound pressure of 140 dB taking account of hearing protection) are not exceeded
• Provide employees with information, instruction and training
For more information about the Regulations and simple steps that can be taken to reduce employee noise exposure visit:
www.hse.gov.uk/noise
The main changes in the
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