Waste management – or rather sustainable resources management – has quickly become business critical. The number of senior and middle managers with responsibility for waste in their organisation is burgeoning, as is the complexity of what they have to assimilate and deliver. These managers deserve and need help to do their jobs well and this practitioners’ guide is a valuable part of that help.

Waste and sustainable resource management can make or break a business. Compliance with complicated and changing legislation can be hard. But it’s nowhere near as expensive as a prosecution in terms of fines, lost supply chain credentials and damaged customer perception. This guide will help you protect your organisation from knowing or unknowing legal breaches and the penalties that come with them. Beyond compliance, good waste awareness brings opportunities; lower cost inputs to your process; finding customers who want your waste as their input; expert opportunities; or cost savings that go straight to the bottom line. Raw materials costs continue to rise, as does the cost of responsible waste management, and most businesses seriously underestimate the true cost of their wastes. Even looking forward just a few short years will see higher prices at fewer landfills, spiralling landfill taxes and outright bans on landfilling; we will also see higher treatment standards, tougher producer responsibilities and reporting obligations like site waste management plans, sky high energy costs, and law changes covering issues such as the availability of exemptions from waste permits.

Staying abreast of responsibilities and opportunities with wastes and resources won’t be easy, but the importance of doing so to avoid pitfalls and reap rewards, continues to grow. Waste matters, and their careful management will make a difference to your business.