London Wider Waste Strategy - London - Greater London Authority

• The treatment facilities established as municipal partnerships.
• The national waste tax – all enterprises receiving waste for landfilling or
incineration must pay a tax for the waste received (no tax is required for
enterprises receiving waste for recycling.)
Sources: Pers. Comm. with Lene Bjerg Kristensen, Copenhagen Environmental Protection Agency
Commercial Sector
4.119. The burden of environmental legislation varies considerably according to both the size
of the enterprise and the sector in which it operates. There is relatively little
environmental legislation that impacts upon the service sector and, from a waste
perspective, the only pieces of legislation that could affect all organisations is the
Environmental Protection (Duty of Care Regulations) 1991, Producer Responsibility
Regulations, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, and the
Hazardous Waste Regulations. Nevertheless, the overwhelmingly majority of the smaller
service sector companies are likely to be largely unaffected by these regulations at a
practical level simply because their duty is being discharged through a Council operated
collection service, or because their landlord or waste management companies essentially
meet the legal obligation on their behalf (although they still retain a legal duty). SLR’s
experience in practice is that many SMEs, and particularly the smaller companies, are
very much unaware of these regulations.
4.120. The fact is that for the overwhelming majority of companies in the service sector there is
no legislative driver for them to reduce waste. Whilst there is, of course, an economic
driver, which is continuing to increase with rises in landfill tax, the evidence suggests
that this remains insignificant or, at the very least, unproven to SMEs in the commercial
sector (Brook Lyndhurst, Sustainable Business Development, Final Report for the
London Development Agency and Business Link for London, March 2004) (Envirowise,
pers. comm.). Further, whilst waste management costs are obviously of greater concern
for larger companies, there is again little evidence that such companies in the
commercial sector are as convinced by waste management considerations as a means of
reducing costs as other means. In short, the contribution that waste management costs
make to the office based sectors are relatively insignificant and hence this is a less
important - if not insignificant - driver for action.
4.121. The costs of waste management in other commercial sectors such as hospitality, retail,
wholesale, and education are likely to be higher. These sectors are also likely to have a
more diverse range of waste management requirements. However, the Brook Lyndhurst
report (Brook Lyndhurst 2004) again did not indicate that costs were a driver in the
restaurants that they were included in their survey (the wider hospitality sector, retail
and wholesale were not included in their project). It is noted that the costs of disposing
of white goods and, in particular, fridges is an increasing driver due to the EU Directive
on substances that deplete the ozone layer 16 .
4.122. It appears that perhaps the main driver at present for the smaller and medium sized
enterprises to adopt sustainable waste management practices is personal interest,
followed by reputation (Brook Lyndhurst 2004; SME-nvironment 2003). However, it is
interesting to note that Brook Lyndhurst also found that regulation can be a significant
driver.
16 Regulation (EC) No. 2037/2000 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 th June 2000 on
substances that deplete the ozone layer.
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