Discarding of your business waste is of paramount importance in order to comply with health and safety regulations.
Many businesses fall foul of these laws every year and the fines for incorrectly or illegally disposing of commercial waste can run into the tens of thousands of pounds and imprisonment is an option in severe cases.
This is why proper waste management is vital. Producing too much waste can be a sign that your businesses processes are inefficient and the cost of disposing of waste is rising.
There are three main things that you should do in order to ensure that you stay on the right side of health and safety legislation.
Recycle As Much As You Can
We do this at home (or at least we should do!) and it should be no different when it comes to your business.
Did you know that just one recycled plastic bottle saves the same amount of energy that a 60-watt bulb uses in 3 hours? Businesses have a duty more than ever to practice recycling in the workplace whether this is encouraging employees to recycle or making sure that their commercial waste is recycled as much as it can be.
Reuse Old Equipment
Businesses need to upgrade their equipment from time to time but do your old computers need to be thrown out?
Think about donating them to charity and getting rid of your unwanted items in a more beneficial and environmentally friendly way. Just because you have equipment that you don’t need at work anymore doesn’t mean no-one else can use it and it cuts down on the amount of waste that you generate.
Reduce And Dispose Of Correctly
The best way to conduct effective waste management for health and safety purposes is to reduce the waste that you produce in the first place.
Businesses are making more of an effort these days to cut down on their waste. Generating too much is usually a sign that something is wrong in the way in which your business operates. Moving to paperless systems, purchasing recycled goods and spending more in the short term on higher quality products that will last longer are all good ways to reduce waste.
Disposing of this waste properly through a registered waste contractor is imperative as ultimately it is your business that will be fined for incorrect disposal methods.
Practising Waste Management For Health And Safety
For your businesses’ future reducing and disposing of the waste is as important as any strategy that you implement.
The fines and punishments for illegally or incorrectly getting rid of your waste can be severe particularly for small companies. The best way to implement an effective waste management policy is to reduce it in the first place by practising recycling methods, promoting a culture of proper disposal and reusing as much as you can.
While every business will have waste to get rid of the way in which you do it can mean the difference between complying with health and safety regulations and falling on the wrong side of the law.
