Wise about waste

Envirowise, the sustainable business experts, have announced that from the end of October all organisations in the engineering sector will need to treat their non-hazardous waste before disposal to landfill.

Under existing regulations, firms are required to separate and treat hazardous waste, but these changes under the pan-European Landfill Directive2 mean that they will also have to treat non-hazardous waste, which includes anything from food waste, paper and plastic, to bricks, wood and soil.
Heather Cholerton, Envirowise Programme Delivery Leader, said: ‘The main objective is to encourage companies to consider options for elimination, minimisation, re-use, recycling and recovery of their wastes. Treatment can be as simple as collecting wastes in separate streams and arranging for the recycling of one or more of the separated components.

‘Other treatment options include physical treatment such as breaking down waste brick into aggregate, and thermal treatments such as incineration or mechanical biological treatment (MBT), which involves processes such as composting or anaerobic digestion. It will be the responsibility of landfill operators in England and Wales to ensure that non-hazardous waste has been treated before accepting it for disposal.’