Waste Pre-Acceptance Auditing - March 2012 Update
The Environment Agency has imposed a legal requirement in Environmental Permits for Disposal sites to ensure that producers carry out audits of their waste before it can be accepted. These are known as 'pre-acceptance audits'. Producers will also be required to periodically re-audit sites in future.
Consequently the Contractors accepting your waste from us for disposal require us to demonstrate that we have obtained this audit information from our Customers before it can legally be accepted and disposed of.
More detail is provided in the Environment Agency Briefing Note ‘Clinical Waste Pre-acceptance Producer Update – October 2010’ included in the Cannon Audit Information Sheet which can be downloaded below. This is also available on the Agency Web site here.
As The Environment Agency Briefing Note details this is a legal requirement (see ‘Do we have to do it’ on Page 2/’What happens if we don’t do it’ on Page 3), failure to carry out audits is a breach of Duty of Care under Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and may result in disposal sites being unable to accept your waste. This means that where audits have not been done in accordance with the dates outlined in the Briefing Note, there may be delays in processing orders.
Although this had been required for larger producers such as acute hospitals since 2009, Cannon and our Trade Association (Sanitary Medical Disposal Services Association, SMDSA) have been working to limit the effects on smaller producers, as many of our customers are, to provide a simplified means of auditing, by a more limited range of waste less producers, at less frequent intervals.
Following representations made by our Trade Association (Sanitary Medical Disposal Services Association, SMDSA), and the withdrawal by The Environment Agency in July 2010 of their Guidance document 'The Management of Clinical Waste S5.07', it was re-issued in January 2011. This can be accessed on The Environment Agency web site by clicking here.
The date of 1st October 2010 by which audits were required to be carried out by other healthcare producers (i.e. other than dentists and veterinary practices) has been delayed and will be required in stages for different types of waste producers between 2011 - 2013. This applies to other healthcare Producers e.g. general practices, health centres and all remaining healthcare waste producers for example community pharmacies and nursing homes. The dates are shown in The Environment Agency Briefing Note 'Clinical Waste Pre-Acceptance Producer Update - October 2010' included in the Cannon Information Sheet which can be downloaded as detailed below.
Further details and instructions on how to access the new Cannon Waste Pre-acceptance Audit Tool launched in March 2010 are included along with associated information in the Cannon Waste Pre-Acceptance Auditing Information Sheet (March 2012) which can be downloaded here.
Further information can be obtained from waste.audits@cannonhygiene.com or from the Waste Audits team on 01524 595620.