Ensuring Duty of Care under shared provision
The UK Waste Duty of Care is a legal obligation under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Section 34) that requires anyone who produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats, disposes of, or controls waste to take all reasonable steps to ensure that it is managed properly.
It is imperative that all parties involved in shared provision ensure that their Duty of Care is discharged, as well as making sure that the other parties involved in the shared provision discharge their duty.
This can either be managed through the parties themselves or through a third party (such as a landlord). Whilst the Duty of Care in relation to shared provision is not directly addressed in the Code of Practice: Waste Duty of Care, the requirements still apply.
Issuing of waste transfer notes
A Waste Transfer Note (WTN) is a legal document used to track the transfer of non-hazardous and hazardous waste from one party to another. It ensures that waste is handled and disposed of correctly, following the Duty of Care regulations under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
When engaging in shared provision via a formal agreement, the issuing of WTNs by the waste collector, can be done via different methods which can be arranged between waste producers.
The waste collector can either issue each of the parties involved in the shared provision with a separate WTN or the waste collector can issue a WTN to an elected party and that party will then send the WTNs onto the other parties.
Regulatory compliance
Complying with waste Duty of Care is a legal requirement and must be complied with whether waste is being presented individually or as part of a shared provision agreement. In order to be compliant with the waste Duty of Care, the parties must sign a formal agreement.
Informal agreements do not comply with the regulatory requirement as the waste collector would not be able to issue WTNs to all the waste producers as they would not know of their existence.