Case studies - Accepting SME wastes in West Sussex

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) has a network of 11 Household Waste Recycling Facilities and five Waste Transfer Stations operated by its service provider Viridor Waste Management.

Of these five transfer stations, two can accept commercial wastes from small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), these are; Burgess Hill waste transfer station and Westhampnett waste transfer station, both of which recently have undergone an extensive redevelopment.
Historically the type of wastes, these sites would accept was mixed general waste to the exclusion of hazardous materials.

Since 2005, there has been much development in recycling and waste legislation. Additionally local authorities are being encouraged to assist businesses with recycling. In line with these developments WSCC have increased the trade service offered to include recycling for some recyclables including green waste and cardboard.

Issues to consider:

Planning and Licensing
Any site accepting commercial waste must have planning permission and an appropriate environmental permitting. Both facilities in West Sussex are permitted to accept wastes arising from SMEs and are permitted to accept some types of hazardous waste.

Site Management
Primarily transfer stations in West Sussex have been designed for the use of Waste Collection Authorities, therefore a number of issues must be taken into account in order to accept and segregate small quantities of commercial waste from SMEs:

Heath and Safety
Traffic management – difficulties managing smaller vehicles.
Requirement to use PPE and correct visual beacons on vehicles.

Operational
SMEs will usually deliver wastes as a mixed load, therefore procedures need to be in place to manage mixed loads effectively and with regard to operational issues e.g. a load may consist of some cardboard and some general waste.

Pricing structure
To encourage segregation of recyclable materials e.g. green waste and cardboard from general landfill waste different pricing structures must be in place to reflect the charges. For example reprocessing costs to recycle cardboard will be different in comparative to landfill charges. 

Communication
Many SMEs are unaware of requirements of waste management legislation and their obligations as a business. This information needs to be communicated simply at the site. WSCC and Viridor are currently developing publications to inform SMEs of waste acceptance criteria at WSCC transfer stations.  

 

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Download the Guide in PDF format Download the Haz Guide

 i  Related links

West Sussex County Council waste and recycling leaflet for businesses is available here and a link to their trade waste pages is here.

Household hazardous waste leaflet

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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