Reed Beds have been mentioned as a possible washpad solution too. These are fine for sewage waste, but have severe limitations when handling hydrocarbons (oil, grease, fuel etc.).
Waste Management
“Washing down machines into the groundwater, with these substances on them, means that you are breaking the law. To claim ignorance of this is no defence”
As a producer of hazardous waste - and you almost certainly will be; waste oils and fuels, solvents (e.g. aerosols), fluorescent tubes, gas bottles, TVs and monitors, batteries, etc. - you should be registered as such with the Environment Agency (EA) to ensure compliance with The Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005 and The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations. If what you produce is less than 500kg, you do not need to be registered. However, two barrels of waste oil alone will bring you up to this level! Registration must be made each year and you are provided with a Premises Code. You can do this directly with the EA, or your waste management company can do this for you as part of their service. Consignment Notes must be produced to move hazardous waste, and anyone carrying hazardous waste must be registered as a waste carrier. This effectively means that you cannot transport such waste yourself. Audit trails have to be established too so that, if you are inspected, you can produce the necessary documents to prove use, storage and disposal of product. The best option is to entrust your waste management to a reputable company, licensed to carry waste and that will produce consignment notes and suitable containers for your waste. Remember that you cannot mix waste
now, and that is why it is important to have separate containers to maintain separate waste streams. If you care for the environment, you are probably interested in recycling and may wish to know what your waste management company actually does with the waste collected from you; why not ask them? My own company, for example, operates a licensed waste transfer
station, and has invested in plant and equipment to enable recycling of around 90% of the waste we collect via our own transport. Typical, are the many thousands of plastic containers which are processed in a huge machine that produces small plastic chips. These then go to be moulded into useful rot-proof items, such as fence posts, seating, sleepers, etc., very often seen back at golf courses and leisure and amenity sites; Recycling at its best! Remember that, along with compliance with legislation, you also have a ‘Duty of Care’ to ensure that your waste is properly disposed of.
Environment Agency (EA) Civil Sanctions
The Environment Agency recently introduced new enforcement powers. The Environmental Civil Sanctions (England) Order 2010 came into force on 6th April 2010, and allows the environmental regulator to impose civil sanctions on a business committing certain environmental offences, as an alternative to prosecution and criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment. Under the regulations, the three areas covered in this article are included; Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005, Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001, Water Resources (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2003. The civil sanctions include:
Compliance notice: A requirement to take specified steps, within a stated period, to secure that an offence does not continue or happen again.
Restoration notice: A requirement to take specified steps, within a stated period, to secure that the position is, so far as possible, restored to what it would have been if no offence had been committed.
Enforcement undertaking: These enable a person, which a regulator reasonably suspects of having
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