Significant lack of oversight in the waste disposal industry is leading to environmental disaster, says Suzanne Mitchison, Director of Waste Services, Everflow.
Recent news of an enormous illegal dump being discovered in Oxfordshire will have angered many business owners who are trying to do the right thing with their waste. Companies who pay thousands of pounds annually to take part in responsible recycling are suddenly seeing what can really happen once the bin lorry pulls away – their carefully separated rubbish being thrown into one big heap.
The Cost of Waste
Up and down the UK, responsible management of waste has become a significant cost for businesses. Business owners can spend thousands of pounds on waste removal, confident that their provider is doing the right thing with the rubbish.
Positively, SMEs are increasingly seeing recycling not just as something you do to comply with regulation, rather it is an ethical commitment to communities and the planet.
There is still some way to go in terms of making recycling simpler – recently introduced legislation has made it harder and more expensive for businesses to recycle.
Despite this, many are still trying – but the recent developments surrounding illegal dumping sites show that well-meaning, responsible business owners are being duped out of their money by individuals who do not care at all for the environment, or their wallets.
The Wider Danger of Dumps
The sheer scale of the UK’s illegal dumping problem reveals a significant lack of oversight of the business waste disposal industry. Unscrupulous companies are able to pose as legitimate firms and make quick money by exploiting business’ trust.
So large is the problem, in fact, that these “super sites” have to be positioned in remote, hard to reach, hidden spots to evade notice. Often found on floodplains, they allow forever chemicals to leach into soil and water causing significant harm to local wildlife and ecosystems.
The risks go much further than environmental harm. Many businesses produce ‘branded waste’ – waste products with logos on them. When these end up being found in large quantities in illegal dumps, it raises questions about the environmental responsibilities of the business, even if they thought they were doing the right thing.
This is especially frustrating for businesses who are doing their best to comply with the new Extended Producer Responsibility legislations, which state that companies of a certain size must pay for the full cost of managing household packaging waste. Many are paying large sums to do so, but still seeing their packaging end up in illegal sites.
How Businesses can Protect Themselves
There are, thankfully, a number of ways in which companies can protect themselves and their environmental commitments. At the premises itself, good sorting remains paramount – clearly labelled bins, staff training, and fully separated streams of waste ensure that there is no risk of rubbish ending up in the wrong place.
As the illegal dumps show, however, waste does not fall entirely at the businesses’ feet: it is crucial to only engage licensed, reputable, and compliant waste disposal services to ensure that, once it leaves the site, the waste is handled with the same care and doesn’t end up in a pile.
Carefully managing the waste supply chain is essential to making sure your business’ rubbish doesn’t end up in illegal dumps. Some of the large burden of this task can be taken off individuals’ workloads by employing third party waste retailers who are able to ensure proper disposal, recycling, and compliance with environmental regulations efficiently.
Through this lens, illegal dumping becomes not just an issue for the private sector, but rather one where the burden is shared between a multitude of stakeholders all trusting one another to do the right thing. It’s a complex issue and requires careful planning and oversight to avoid the environment destroying dumps we’re seeing in the news right now.
Responsible Futures
The emergence of these large illegal dumps is a major threat to both the environment and businesses’ efforts to act responsibly with regards to their waste. Companies that are spending thousands annually in waste management are seeing their efforts undermined, with their carefully separated waste ending up in vast, illicit “super dumps”
These sites not only cause major ecological harm but pose reputational risks too – especially for companies which produce branded waste and are attempting to comply with the Extended Producer Responsibility legislation.
A multi-faceted approach will be required to tackle the problem. Businesses still need to ensure rigorous on-site sorting is taking place, staff need to be trained on regulations, and waste streams must be clearly labelled and separated. On top of this, it may also be wise to employ third-party waste retailers to maintain oversight across the supply chain.
Only through careful planning, transparency in waste practices, and shared responsibility across industries and regulators can the harmful cycle of illegal dumping be effectively disrupted.
