Waste Management Roles and Responsibilities

The Waste Producer

It is important to understand that as we all produce waste, we all have to take responsibility for it; waste is not just the responsibility of someone who moves it around for us or who manages or disposes of it for us. Waste management legislation clearly places certain responsibilities on the producer of waste so it is important to be clear under what circumstances your institution is acting as a waste producer. Guidance is given in “Waste Management: The Duty of Care - A Code of Practice”. This defines a producer as:

the person who made the substance become waste e.g. by breaking or contaminating it
the person who decided that a substance was unwanted and therefore waste

For example, where construction work is taking place, the waste producer is the person actually doing the work that produces the waste, not the person who issued the contract or gave instructions for the work to be carried out. You can of course, specify within the contract how you want the waste to be managed e.g. reused or recycled.

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Waste Management Roles and Responsibilities

The Waste Producer

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