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Fly tipping extreme

Need to stay up to date on industry events, then you can get a regular copy delivered to your door on a monthly basis by clicking the subscribe button below, you can also stay in touch by following us on Twitter or Facebook

I’m part way through reading The Men Who Stare at Goats, in which US Special Forces research paranormal forces to see if they can use them in operations and firmly believe that it is possible to kill a goat just by staring at it.  Apparently based on a true story!  I know how they feel, I hope that if I stare at the new regulations long enough they will burst into flames and disappear.  Sadly though they have not so I read them instead.

It’s not long now until the The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 replace the 131 page 2007 Regulations with a 209 page document.  The regulations were laid before the House of Commons and Lords and the National Assembly for Wales on 25 January 2010 and are expected to be debated in the coming weeks, coming into force on 6 April 2010.  The draft regulations and the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum are available at:

www.defra.gov.uk/environment/policy/permits

The changes will bring in the exemption review, which has been ongoing for some time (see my article in The Skip 38) and a number of other regimes into one document, which should hopefully be good thing.  The official reasons for the change are summarised below:

1.     Widen the existing streamlined environmental permitting and compliance system in England and Wales by integrating existing regimes covering water discharge consenting,  groundwater authorisations  and radioactive substances regulation authorisations and the outcomes of the Waste Exemptions Order Review into the Environmental Permitting system!

2.     Bring in the majority of the Mining Waste Directive and the permitting parts of the Batteries Directive into the single permitting system.  In all 18 EC Directives are brought together in one set of Regulations.

3.     The draft EP Regulations 2010 are designed to “reduce the administrative burden of regulation on industry and regulators without compromising the environmental and human health standards previously delivered by the separate regimes and create an extended permitting and compliance system that brings increased clarity and certainty for everyone on how the regulations protect the environment”.

Nice sentiments but will it work?  I am all for reducing the number of documents we all have to deal with but what are the main issues of interest to the skip and waste industry?

There are provisions to replace multiple permits by consolidating them into one new permit.  This should enable sites with permits and discharge consents to have one new document, for example.  Also the creation of further standard rules permits will simplify regulation of waste sites in particular and hopefully make it cost effective to apply for the new permits. Existing and new permits are covered by the new regulations the day they come into force unless subject to an appeal. Current applications will be dealt with under the 2007 Regulations.  It may be worth waiting for 6 April to see what the Environment Agency’s interpretation is and how they will widen the standard rules permits to cover more sites.

There are 35 pages of exemptions so the best option for now is to see which ones make it through the debate and review them in a future article.  The good news is that there are transitional provision for exempt activities, with the exception of any activities which involve disposal or recovery of agricultural waste on agricultural land (which are OK until 1 October 2013).  Otherwise your exemptions are safe in their current form under the 2007 regulations until the dates below:

i.      Paragraphs 9, 10, 12 or 19 – OK until 1 October 2011

ii.     Paragraphs 13 or 21 – OK until 6 April 2012

iii.    Paragraph 7 – OK until 1 October 2012

iv.    Paragraphs 4, 5,  6, 11, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 22, 23, 25, 29, 30, 31, 32, 38, 40, 41, 42, 46 – OK until 1 October 2012

v.     Paragraphs 2, 3, 8, 24, 43, 44, 45 – OK until 1 October 2013

Despite the delay in the new exemptions replacing your current ones I would advise all readers to check the corresponding activity in the new regulations to check what you have to do after the dates stated above.  As far as I can see if there is a benefit from the new exemptions there is nothing to stop you from re-registering the new exemption.  If you have any queries please e-mail me or phone The Skip.

Also of interest this month are:

The Environment Agency: A review of implementation of better regulation – an independent review of the extent to which the Environment Agency puts the principles of better regulation into practice. Assesses the progress made by the Environment Agency since its full Hampton report.  See http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file54411.pdf

Gypsum Quality Protocol – published: The joint WRAP and Environment Agency Protocols Programme has published the Quality Protocol outlining when gypsum from waste plasterboard is no longer classed as waste.  Details at

http://www.wrap.org.uk/media_centre/press_releases/new_gypsum_quality.html

Marco Muia BSc (Hons) MSc MCIWM is the Director of Oaktree Environmental Limited. He specialises in all aspects of waste planning and regulation consultancy. He also holds the level 4 COTCs for Hazardous Waste Treatment and Transfer. You can contact Marco on 01606 558833 if you have any questions about this article or e-mail him at marco@oaktreeenvironmental.co.uk

Happy Springtime, Skippers.

It seems my request for letters from the blokes didn’t fall on deaf ears, you fellas seemed to have carried a lot on your shoulders emotionally, so it’s nice to see you seeking advice. Well, spring is in the air, and so is romance for one poor lovesick skip hire worker, and I’ve been asked to plan the engagement of a skip boss as he ponders the best way to propose to the love of his life. All in all,  it’s made me re-evaluate the way I think about you guys – you’re all dead soppy at heart aren’t you. And there was me thinking you were gruff, hairy tough guys!

Well, the more the merrier, so if you have anything you need to unload or get of your chest, drop me an email at dearbernice@theskip.net. You know what they say, a problem shared is a problem halved!

Dear Bernice

There’s a girl at work that I have a massive crush on. We get on really well together,a lways have loads to talk about, have loads in common and are similar ages. The problem is she’s in a relationship. And she doesn’t seem that happy with it. If you ask me, her bloke is a bit of a tosser – he doesn’t appreciate her and talks to her really badly. She’s been in this relationship since she was a teenager, and it seems to me it’s so much a part of her life that she doesn’t know how to get out of it. I’d mind my own business, but I sometimes catch her looking at me and I know if we were together, it’d be amazing.

One thing – I’ve already told her how I’ve felt. It was pretty awkward for a time, but OK now. I was pretty drunk and she took it as well as she could. She obviously didn’t reciprocate, but I can’t help but think she has some feelings towards me. She’s just going out with this tool, and doesn’t know how to deal with it all.

Lovesick

Southampton

Hello Lovesick

Nice to get some men looking for advice for once! This is a classic case of being helplessly in love. You love this woman (go on, admit it!) but you obviously respect the feelings of her and her man to do anything about it. And you think she likes you but she’s too good/lost to wreck her current relationship despite it sounding pretty much dead. Remember The Office on TV? Remember Tim and Dawn, the bittersweet office relationship? This is an identikit of this. Tim was painfully in love with the woman he couldn’t get. And what happened? Dawn, at the eleventh hour, decides to completely change her life, walk out of the damaging relationship, and into the arms of Tim – the good guy. The thing is, Lovesick, you really can’t do much until she has the strength and sense to shake of the shackles of her current relationship. In my expereice, shed might not be that far away. She sees you, she knows that not all men are like her current boyfriend and she starts comparing him to you. Be patient Lovesick, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. But first, she has to come to you. Good luck.

Bernice.xxx

Dear Bernice,

I need some advice. I met my partner four years ago next month in our skip yard. I own it, and she was a friend of a friend who came in to help with the accounts. We were mates for ages until a few years in we got together. We’ve been inseparable ever since and have built up a successful business together through thick and thin. I want to do propose to her on this anniversary milestone and tell her how much she means to me, and how she still makes me feel like a teenager in love. Any ideas, Bernice?

Young at Heart

Lancashire

Young at Heart! You’ve got me feeling all soppy now! You’re obviously both big time in love, and this is amazing to see especially as you both work together and have got through these difficult times. OK, well, I can suggest the obvious – champagne, a weekend away, a nice dinner. But if you want something really memorable, you may want to do something along the same lines of what a colleague of mine did to his wife a few years ago. He took her out for a nice late lunch and told the lads in the yard the plan. When he arrived back, he took her to the office on the first floor and told her to look outside. The lads had all lined up with their wagons in the yard each with a placard with a letter on each one spelling out ‘Jean, Will You Marry Me?’ They’d also rigged some fireworks up. When she saw this, she burst out crying and said yes, and the fireworks shot up into the winter evening sky. Champagne was popped and work finished early. It was very, very cute. You could perhaps try something like that…whatever it is you choose the best of luck and I hope she says yes!

What is it with all you men this month, deciding to spill your guts out to little me? Well,  keep them coming, guys! See you next month!

The Skip mag is sad to report the death of a binman was killed when he was apparently crushed by his lorry in Gloucestershire.

Emergency services were called to Aldsworth Close in Fairford as soon as the accident occurred.

The man, named as Ian Moody, from Malmesbury in Wiltshire, was reported to have been trapped between the lorry and some bins.

The 52-year-old, who worked for waste company Sita, which has a contract with Cotswold District Council, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Gloucestershire Police, the Health and Safety Executive and Sita have begun an investigation.

A Sita spokesman said: “At this difficult time our thoughts are obviously with his family and work colleagues.”

He added: “Sita UK takes its health and safety obligations very seriously.”

Everyone involved in the incident had been offered counselling, he said.

A police spokesman said the the corner has been informed.

It once saved the day for old fogie, J R Hartley, but these days Yellow Pages are more fly tipping than fly fishing.

Councils are complaining about the numbers of Yellow Pages that end up straight to landfill as consumers have long since been using online directories like Google or Yell.

The bulk of them are also causing a problem for refuse collections as they weigh down loads. It seems that most of the population get sent their Yellow Pages and throw them straight in to their wheeliebin.

According to the Local Government Association, unwanted phone books create 75,000 tons of waste paper a year.

Disposing of the books costs taxpayers £7.5million a year in England alone – enough to pay for 491 teaching assistants or 259 social workers, or to fill in approximately 108,700 potholes.

The LGA said householders who do not use the directories should ask BT, Yellow Pages and Thomson not to deliver copies.

Gary Porter, chairman of the LGA’s environment board, said: ‘Picking up the new phone book from the doormat, removing the wrapper and throwing it straight in the recycling has become an annual ritual.

‘Cutting down on the number of pointless phone directories could save millions and allow councils to spend more on vital services like care for the elderly.’

Fancy That!

What have Mr Blobby, Grimsby and an 8 cu yd builder skip got in common?

Well they all converged together to make a riotous Saturday night out in the north eastern town recently!

Harlequins Fancy Dress Shop unfortunately shut its doors this month, and a skip was ordered to clear the premises of the stock. Costume after costume was thrown in and after the clearers decided to call it a day the skip was left there until the next Monday.

Big mistake.

Of course, this being Saturday night, the skip attracted a drunken crowd of ne’er do wells (we’d do EXACTLY the same thing, given half the chance of course). Within minutes of being discovered Mr Blobby, a gorilla and Henry VIII were doing the conga down Grimsby High Street.

Reports of Cher and a Franciscan monk getting frisky outside the Yates’s Wine Lodge are unconfirmed, but we do have hot gossip on a fat Elvis and a pink bunny bumping and grinding to some LL Cool Jay on the local dancefloor.

For this story alone, we just love skips!

OK, it’s annoying but seeing flytipped tyres, fridges and bin bags is something that we’re used to seeing. And I suppose, the odd aeroplane is to be expected…

Wait. AN AEROPLANE?

Yes, an aeroplane, or in fact TWO aeroplanes, have been dumped on a site near Allerton Moor, near Cheddar, Somerset.

Someone has abandoned a single-engined 1950 Piper PA-20 Pacer and the shell of another small plane and nobody has a clue when, why, how and who by.

Among the other junk at the site on Allerton Moor, near Cheddar, Somerset, is a caravan, a Ford Escort van and two old boats.

A removal-type van, corrugated iron sheets, clothes and children’s toys have also been dumped beside an outbuilding on the moor.

Inside, the brick and corrugated iron structure is crammed head high with black bin bags full of rubbish.

Sedgemoor District Council is trying to trace the owner of the land – around half-a-mile from the nearest houses in the village of Chapel Allerton.

Until then it is unable to take action to have the site cleared – unless it does it itself and the bill is footed by the taxpayer.

A spokesman said: ‘We have been trying to trace the owner of the land, but have exhausted all our options.

‘We could go in and clear it under legal powers, but the cost would be picked up by the taxpayer. And that cost could be considerable.’

The owner of a Reading skip hire business that took waste without the proper licences has been electronically tagged and put under curfew, given a six month suspended sentence and ordered to pay costs of £6,000.

His son, also involved in the business, was given a 200 hour community service order.

Leslie Tucker Dunn Snr and Leslie Thomas Dunn Jnr of Arborfield Cross, Reading pleaded guilty on the 11 January 2010 at Oxford Crown Court to depositing controlled waste without a Waste Management Licence.

The Dunns ran a series of businesses from the site including a skip hire business called – “Talking Rubbish” – and received waste ranging from wood, plastics, cardboard, rubber, polystyrene and soil between January and July 2008.

Environment Agency officers regularly attended the site and saw waste being handled on many occasions but, despite the repeated requests to stop the unlawful activity, the Dunns continued on.

To legitimately bring such waste onto the site and deal with it, the owners needed planning permission and a relevant waste management licence or environmental permit.

The judge told the defendants that the offences must be viewed against a “backdrop of sustained enforcement action by the Environment Agency”, and congratulated the efforts of the Environment Agency in its sustained investigation despite efforts by the defendants to derail it.

The court heard how Dunn Snr wrote to the Environment Agency in a statement claiming that he no longer ran the business at the site due to ill-health and it was his sons who ran the business. At court it was submitted on his behalf that he advised the business and also assisted when required. He was caught on CCTV driving a lorry to a landfill run by another company.

The court was also told that in December 2007 Mr Dunn senior was fined £30,000 and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £6,000 after pleading guilty on a previous date at Reading Magistrates’ Court to six offences of breaching the conditions of his scrap metal waste management licence and also bringing non scrap metal waste onto the site without a waste management licence.

Environment officer Gill May said: “The company ignored repeated warnings to stop the handling and treatment of non scrap metal waste without a waste management licence or later an Environmental Permit.

“A waste management licence or an Environmental Permit would impose controls designed to protect the environment and those living in the local area. Companies operating illegally and who also avoid the costs of measures to protect the environment gain a commercial advantage over those companies operating legally.”

“We are pleased the court has deemed this a serious case by handing out a suspended sentence and a community service order.

“Waste company operators must ensure that they comply with the regulations and operate within the conditions of their permits so that they are not harming the environment or breaking the law.”