Waste Regulations: Why choose Clearabee?

Fly-tipping is once again on the rise in the UK, with 1,072,000 cases reported in 2018/19 and the UK lockdown only adding to these numbers with restrictions around access to local Household Waste Recycling Centres. Clearabee’s waste clearances are fully compliant with waste regulations, giving you complete confidence that your rubbish is being removed responsibly and that together, we are not fueling the fly-tipping problem.

With the BBC’s Panorama reporting that the waste carriers licence fails to stop illegal fly-tipping, it’s important to look at other waste regulation pre-requisites that you should be looking for in your waste clearance companies.

Whilst a waste carriers licence is still needed before a company can clear waste of any kind, these have been proven to be easy to acquire with only an internet connection and the application fee. Famously, one campaigner applied for and received a licence in the name of his deceased dog, highlighting the flaws in the system. In short, carrying a waste carriers licence does not signal waste compliance in itself.

There are even cases where seemingly reputable waste clearance companies have sub-contracted collection jobs out to other operators, to find later that this operator has illegally dumped the waste. This, of course, is not only harmful to the environment but the original producer of the waste can be found liable and fined or even imprisoned.

Waste Regulations and Clearabee

Some companies have even had their waste operatives take items home for themselves, rather than transport them to the appropriate Waste Transfer Station for disposal. Clearabee, on the other hand, operate an in-house, virtually-integrated business model. We have over 120 ‘Man and Van’ locations set up all around the country and all of our staff are directly employed, so we would only ever outsource our jobs in extreme circumstances.

When it comes to Waste Transfer Stations, our compliance team annually audits the facilities that we use in your local area to ensure that the publicised landfill diversion rate is still an accurate representation of the results achieved. Across the nation, this landfill diversion or recycle rate is at least 95%, which means that over 95% of the waste that we collect whether it’s from your home, office or garden, is reused or recycled.

For every waste clearance that we conduct in the UK, we issue the customer with a digital Waste Transfer Note which is also kept on record by Clearabee for future reference. This note goes into detail about the nature of the waste collection, such as the items which have been collected from your property. The note also makes a record of the vehicle used to remove the waste and the name of the local Waste Transfer Note which took delivery of the waste. The Waste Transfer Note forms part of your Duty of Care and shows that you have practiced due diligence in selecting a reputable and responsible rubbish remover.

This also means that you can be sure that our waste operatives are disposing of your waste in line with the letter of the law, and certainly not taking it home or leaving it in a layby.

As mentioned above, the Waste Transfer Note also details the recycling rate achieved when it comes to waste regulations, clearance companies also have a responsibility to reduce their carbon footprint to minimise the damage done to the environment as a result of rubbish removal operations. Clearabee have strived to become a carbon-neutral clearance company and have achieved this through a number of methods.

Waste Compliance and Environmental Credentials

Our ‘Man and Van’ clearance vehicles are built on an ultra-light chassis which lessens the weight of the vehicle overall and reduces the fuel consumption. Our fuel consumption and carbon usage is also reduced by the aforementioned 120 locations. The spacing of these locations and the use of over 600 Waste Transfer Stations which are local to the customer means that, on average, each journey we take is less than a distance of 15 miles.

Clearabee are proud of our environmental credentials and in particular, our carbon neutrality which is achieved by our reforestation project working in tandem with the above-mentioned measures. Since 2018, we have worked with Forest Carbon and planted 19,674 trees, resulting in two separate UK forests. Not only do these forests act as a sanctuary to the local wildlife and mitigate flood risks, but they are expected to offset over 1,886 tonnes of carbon.

Speaking to Panorama, a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said; “We will also reform the licensing system for waste carriers to ensure stricter background and competency checks which, in combination with mandatory electronic waste tracking, will increase compliance and make it harder for criminals to operate.”

Already ahead of the curve, Clearabee has vehicle tracking enabled for all of the ‘Man and Van’ vehicles in our fleet. This not only means that we can let customers know when our teams are on their way to their collection, but also so everyone involved knows that the waste is only being tipped at reputable sites.

Our ‘Man and Van’ clearance fleet also feature live cameras which feed footage straight back to our control centre. Again, this ensures that all of our staff are acting in a compliant manner and disposing of your rubbish responsibly, legally and in an environmentally friendly manner. This means that by using Clearabee, fly-tipping is being rendered impossible.

Clearabee are the largest clearance company in the UK and have grown nationally since 2013. We are the most-rated such company on Trustpilot, having recently surpassed 10,000 reviews and a 5-Star ‘Excellent’ rating. All of which means that when it comes to waste regulations, you can have complete confidence in Clearabee.

Follow this link to book your rubbish removal or contact Clearabee for any other enquiry.

Removing rubbish. It’s what we do.