25 June 2012
A new awareness campaign has been launched to remind businesses of their responsibility to dispose of waste in the right way, rather than throwing everything into one bin.
Stickers are being provided to businesses and will be seen on commercial bins sited at various locations throughout the town to remind people what types of rubbish cannot be deposited in them. The excluded items need to be recycled or disposed of with special care.
Dangerous or potentially polluting waste
The campaign to get businesses to dispose of their rubbish properly follows waste audits undertaken by the Transport and Technical Services Department and the Parish of St Helier. The audits highlighted a number of problem areas where dangerous or potentially polluting waste is thrown away with general waste. These areas included Sand Street where waste including cooking oils were found in the bins.
The Head of Waste Regulation at the Department of Environment, David Monks, said “The items pictured on the stickers should not be thrown away as general waste. Materials such as glass, cans and batteries should be recycled whilst others such as oil, chemicals and paints require special handling and need to be taken to the appropriate facilities. For businesses, this is normally the Transport and Technical Services sites either at La Collette or in Bellozanne Valley. If they are not disposed of properly, these and other items have the potential to harm the environment.”
Mr Monks said that the aim of the campaign was to improve recycling rates and the efficiency of waste collection and incineration processes. He said that since the completion of the new Energy from Waste Plant at La Collette, Transport and Technical Services had introduced new controls on what waste can be deposited to comply with the emission limits prescribed within their waste management licence.
'Duty of care'
Debra D'Orleans from Parish of St Helier and Emma Richardson from the Transport and Technical Services Recycling Team both said that their departments were available to speak to any businesses which were still unclear about to their ‘Duty of care’ regarding waste disposal.
In addition, the Environmental Protection team is currently undertaking pollution prevention visits to business premises in an effort to promote the use of pollution prevention plans and encourage recycling. The Eco-Active team is actively promoting this under the Eco-Active Business banner.
Bellozanne household recycling facilities (environment and greener living section)
La Collette commercial recycling facilities (environment and greener living section)
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