Waste management - England Golf

The Maintenance Facility:
Best practice guide to the management of selected maintenance streams
Best Practice Guidelines
Minimise the amount of pesticide/
containers that require disposal via:
Order enough product to do the job in
hand and no more.
Buy products in the largest practical
container sizes.
Store products in good order.
Use internal sprayer, tank-cleaning units
and container rinsing devices.
Choose products which minimise or
eliminate contaminated packaging waste
such as returnable packs.
Keep careful records of the movement of
stock in and out of the agrochemical store;
rotate stock on the "first-in, first-out"
principle.
Carefully calculate required quantities
needed and mix just enough to complete a
task, no more.
Ensure long-term weather forecasts are
checked in advance of works in order to
plan accordingly.
Disposal of surplus spray and washings
via:
In the crop/grass area—Groundwater
Authorisation required. Find a suitable
area of zero wildlife interest or a previously
underdosed area and spray during
appropriate weather conditions.
Fully contained washdown area with
collection facility—Groundwater
Authorisation not required. All washings/
surplus spray collected into a secure tank
and collected by licensed carrier.
Fully contained washdown area with
treatment plant—Groundwater
Authorisation required. A treatment plant
for machinery washdown can take the
form of one of the commercially available
‘closed loop’ systems or a reedbed
complex prior to discharge.
Continued...
Pesticides
The problem with pesticides
Using pesticides according to the label instructions and following best practice
should ensure their impact on the environment is minimised or even negated
entirely, however there is clear evidence that poor practice when handling and
mixing pesticides, cleaning up and disposing of wastes after spraying can pollute
surface and groundwater. To protect the environment, more legal controls are
being introduced. Since 1999 any disposal to land of surplus spray and washings
that does not take place “in the crop” (i.e. turf) requires a “Groundwater
Authorisation” from the local office of The Environment Agency.
From a purely commercial point of view, all pesticides must be removed from
drinking water (in accordance with 0.1 ppb EU Drinking Water Standards) before it
is passed for human consumption and this is an expensive process—estimated to
be 30 pence for every £1 spent on pesticides. Furthermore, peaks in pesticide
loading can often compromise the ability of the water companies’ ability to remove
the pesticide and thus the water can be rendered unusable.
Perhaps more importantly, pesticides entering our fresh water matrix do cause
serious damage to local wildlife. Those specialist aquatic organisms that are
surviving in water bodies at the very limits of their tolerance can be wiped out
entirely by even a small influx of pesticides. It should be noted that it is not just the
large and obvious spills that cause damage to the ecosystems but also low level
and long-term background levels.
0.1 parts per billion is the level of pesticides allowed to be
in drinking water for it to be passed for human
consumption. This is also the amount that the
Environment Agency can trace back to a polluter and
prosecute. To put this in context, 0.1 ppb is equivalent to:
1 second in 320 years
1 pence in £100,000,000
1 grass clipping in 390 tonnes
WASTE MANAGEMENT
Best Practice Approach for English and Welsh Golf Clubs
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