Commercial Waste Collections
Frequently Asked
Questions
General Information – For more detailed information
please contact the Waste Management Team on 01748
829100.
Q. What is Commercial Waste?
A. Commercial waste is anything
which originates as a result of operating your business and then
needs to be disposed of.
Q. Why do I need to make separate arrangements to
have my commercial waste collected?
A. The Environmental Protection Act 1990 legally
defines 'Household', 'Commercial' and 'Industrial' waste
separately and imposes a duty of care on any business generating
commercial or industrial waste to ensure the waste is not
deposited, kept, transported or disposed of except by a
licensed operator.
Q. What does this mean?
A. The 'Duty of Care' is a law which says that you
must take all reasonable steps to keep waste safe. If you
give waste to someone else, you must be sure they are authorised to
take it and can transport, recycle or dispose of it
safely.
If you break the law you can be fined an unlimited
amount.
Q. Does it affect
me?
A. The duty of care applies to anyone who produced
or imports, keeps or stores, transports, treats or disposes of
waste.
Q. What is waste?
A. It can be anything you own, or your business
produces, and you want, or are required to get rid of.
Q. What is controlled waste?
A. Controlled waste is household, commercial or
industrial waste. It can be from a house, school, university,
hospital, residential or nursing home, shop, office, factory,
holiday cottage (paying Non-Domestic Rates) or any other trade or
business. It may be solid or liquid, scrap metal or a scrap
car. It does not have to be hazardous or toxic to be
controlled waste.
Q. What about household waste?
A. If the waste comes from your own home, the duty
of care does not apply to you. But if the waste is not from
the house you live in e.g. if it is waste from your workplace or
waste from someone else's house the duty of care does apply.
It is not legal for a business operator to take their own
commercial waste home and place it with their domestic waste, nor
to take it to any civic amenity or household waste recycling
centre.
Q. I own a holiday cottage, how do I arrange
to have the refuse collected?
A. Schedule Two of the Controlled Waste Regulations
1992 specifies that charges may be made for collection of waste
from "a domestic property or a caravan used in the course of a
business for the provision of self-catering holiday accommodation".
This includes holiday cottages which pay non domestic rates.
Charges for collection of waste from holiday cottages will be set
at the same tariff as other commercial waste charges, which are
dependant of the amount of waste being produced.
Q. How do I know what to do?
A. The law says you must take all reasonable steps
to fulfil the duty of care and complete some paperwork. What
is reasonable depends on what you do with the waste.
Q. Who can provide me
with a collection of my commercial waste?
A. There is no element within your Non-Domestic
Rates for the collection of commercial waste, collection of
commercial waste is a separate chargeable service.
A business may choose to use any licensed operator to
provide a service please see your Yellow Pages under Waste Disposal
- Commercial for further information or you can request a
service from Richmondshire District Council who can recover 'a
reasonable charge' for the collection of waste.
Q. What is a 'Reasonable Charge'
A. A recent High Court case ruled that charges may
be considered 'reasonable' even if they were higher than other
authorities or the private sector charges in that they may be
'uncompetitive' as opposed to unreasonable. An authority may
subsidise it's costs for the collection of commercial waste from
it's other revenue sources (including Council Tax) 'but should
only do so if "appropriate" (and indeed in most cases it should
avoid doing so)
In effect the reasonable charge should cover all collection (and
disposal) costs but should avoid having an impact on the local
taxpayer.
Q. What recycling
facilities are available for Commercial Premises?
A. See your Yellow Pages under Waste Disposal -
Commercial for further information.
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Last updated:
11 June 2010