Non-compliance could cost you your reputation
It’s a sign of the times that sustainability, ethical trading, and social responsibility are now all at the forefront of consumers’ minds and actively influencing their purchasing decisions. A sustainable business means more than just financial success, it’s the whole package. Your overall value should be measured on non-tangibles too, such as your brand. In this piece, we explore the importance of compliance, and just how crucial it is to your reputation.
The challenge
For many years, enforcement on waste-related criminal activity has been poor. Earlier this year Panorama investigated illegal waste disposal in Wales along a stretch known as ‘the road to nowhere’ where they highlighted the scale of fly-tipping in the area. Although this is caused by a minority of operators seeing an opportunity to make some quick cash, it is unfortunately at the expense of legitimate businesses and people requiring waste removal services. These illegal operators line their own pockets whilst legitimate operators face the prospect of fines, potential prosecutions and significant damage to their reputations.
Earlier this year MRW published an article about the Environment Agency (EA) warning builders about waste crime. This followed a series of incidents in which building, and waste workers had been taken ill when contaminated waste was delivered to sites not equipped for it. Quite rightly the EA is demanding that all construction sites that produce, transport, treat or dispose of waste fulfil their duty of care.
The impact
I see examples of companies who are failing to comply with the law or running inadequate operations from an environmental and H&S perspective. The result is prosecutions and fines of hundreds of thousands of pounds are issued. The bigger, longer term consequence of not carrying out appropriate checks on your sites or on your waste operators is the impact it has to your brand.
Check, check and check it again
It is important to carry out checks on-site as well as with your supply partners. Reconomy supports its customers with this by being there on-site to project manage and check the suitability of waste segregation processes. For example, are waste streams correctly segregated, is hazardous waste or asbestos being safely stored?
Behind the scenes, we work with a large network of fully compliant supply partners, ranging from independents to nationals, to help you with this. We undertake regular checks of our supply chain, including verification of carrier registrations and disposal site locations, as well as keeping up to date with the latest prosecutions and enforcements by regulators. These checks, along with copies of the documents, are available on our Portal for customers to view. These checks form an essential part of Reconomy’s ISO9001 and ISO14001 accreditations.
Are you compliant?
Non-compliance will damage your brand. Speak to us today, we can give you confidence that your waste processes on-site and the supply chain that process your waste is complaint.