The city council has set up a Waste Compliance Team to tackle the illegal disposal of trade waste by businesses, particularly around communal bins. The six person squad – a team leader and five wardens – started their inspections last week.
Of the first 35 premises visited, 29 could not produce a trade waste contract at the time of the visit. Fifteen of these admitted they don’t have a contract at all and were given seven days to have one in place before facing prosecution. The other 14 say they have a contract and have been given seven days to produce it.
In addition, the team have also issued three, £200 fixed penalty notices to businesses for illegally depositing waste on the street.
Cllr Lesley Hinds, Environment Convener, said: “Illegal disposal of trade waste is one of the challenges we face, which can cause some of our communal waste collection sites in the city to overflow. The team’s immediate focus is visiting commercial properties in areas that are served by communal bins to identify businesses that do not have legal agreements in place and are using our communal waste bins to dispose of their waste at the expense of the taxpayer. Businesses who have the correct certification in place and dispose of their waste appropriately are to be thanked.
“We have already made huge progress in reducing the amount of commercial waste being stored on public spaces by businesses and have seen the removal of 80% of trade waste bins from the streets. The enforcement team will help us to tackle this issue further.”
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