Waste
management company, BusinessWaste.co.uk, recently surveyed 1700 small
businesses and discovered that around 90% of them were not aware that waste
laws for businesses will change at the beginning of 2015. The Customer Services
Manager at BusinessWaste.co.uk is Alex Wignall. He said, “It is shocking that 90 percent of the businesses we
spoke to had no idea that these changes are set to come into law very soon. The
cost of not complying with these new regulations could be catastrophic for
businesses – small businesses in particular.”
What you Must Do in
2015
An
amendment to the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, based on the EU
Waste Framework Directive, means that you will be legally obliged to separate recyclable
materials from your landfill waste. This is so that the waste collection
services can collect it separately.
As
long as you keep materials like paper, glass, metals and plastics separate from
the non-recyclable waste, you don’t have to separate the different types of
recyclable material to stay within the law. But different local authorities
have different recycling arrangements and some may require this. The way they
arrange their domestic collections will give you a clue about it, but if you
are not sure about it, your outsourced
bookkeepers may know through their contacts. Otherwise, you can check the
local authority website or you can contact the waste collection service you
currently use for advice.
What you Should do
now
If
you don’t currently separate your recycling, you need to be organising this now
so that you can be ready by the New Year. There should be some advantages to
the new regulations. If your business gets rid of waste to landfill sites, the
fees and taxes you pay for this will be reduced along with the weight of your
landfill waste. This should offset the cost of investing in any new bins or
recycling bags you need.
What Could Happen
Otherwise
As
Alex Wignall pointed out, the penalties for non-compliance are unlimited in the
Crown Courts, and they can be very severe. Even magistrates can impose fines of
up to £5,000 on a business that is brought before them. So make sure your
business doesn’t get a criminal record by sorting out your waste management
arrangements now.
Discussing
regulation that has the potential to affect your bottom line with your outsourced bookkeepers can often be
helpful. All their clients have to meet these challenges, and they see what is
working for others. Talking it over with them could be the next best thing to
all those time consuming networking events.
