September 24, 2020

The Waste Hierarchy & Your Responsibilities

Compliant waste management is critical in the protection of your people, your organisation, your patients and the environment.


To keep everyone safe and comply with legislation, it is vital that waste producers understand the fundamentals of compliant waste management.

It is a waste producer’s responsibility to:

  • Keep waste to a minimum by doing everything possible to prevent, reuse, recycle or recover items.

  • Identify, segregate and store waste safely and securely in suitable containers.

  • Clearly label containers with the type of waste that they contain.

  • Complete a transfer note for each load of waste that leaves your premises.

  • Only use a registered waste carrier to transport, and licenced/permitted facilities to dispose of specialist waste.

  • Take all reasonable measures to ensure that waste does not cause pollution or harm to human health.

In addition to these, regulations also place a requirement for organisations to apply the waste hierarchy.

The waste hierarchy:

The waste hierarchy pyramid ranks 5 waste management options for optimum protection of health and the environment, prioritising waste prevention and ending with disposal

  1. Prevention – keeping products for longer and using less hazardous materials

  2.  Re-use – Cleaning, checking, repairing or refurbishing whole or spare parts to use again

  3. Recycle – Turning waste into a new product

  4. Energy recovery – includes processes which produce fuels, heat and power from waste materials.

  5. Disposal - surrendering waste to landfill or incineration without recovering energy.


Together we can protect what matters!