If You Run A Tree Business - This Affects You

[Dean Lofthouse]

Personally, if you cant keep up with the legislation that governs your business, go and get a 9-5 job.

 

How very dare you,

 

I've got a 9-5 job cutting trees

 

As for keeping up to legislation, I'll leave that up to you tree geeks.

[bill]

whos been pulled and fined?

[Mesterh]

Oh and btw I'm sure you need a brokers license if your going to get someone else take the waste away ie for biomass from a site etc.

[Mesterh]

Just had a quick check and if you use a skip for example or someone removes log or chip from a site that isnt your yard (with exemption) then you will need a brokers license too.

 

Just to confuse and annoy you all even more

[Mr Ed]

Oh and btw I'm sure you need a brokers license if your going to get someone else take the waste away ie for biomass from a site etc.

I asked that. Seemingly not.

[Mesterh]

Really! I wouldnt trust em tbh

[Mesterh]

I got this from the environment website I may be reading it wrong though

 

Brokers

 

Unless you qualify for an exemption, if you want to deal in waste or arrange for someone else’s waste to be disposed of or recovered, you need to register as a waste broker. However, you don’t need to do this if:

 

you’re arranging for your own waste to be disposed of or recovered;

you’re arranging the disposal or recovery of someone else’s waste and you are going to transport it as a registered carrier;

you’re arranging for someone else’s waste to be disposed of or recovered if you are the operator of the authorised site where the waste is going to.

[niftysteve]

whos been pulled and fined?

 

in the earlier post i had EA and council ENVIRONMENTAL OFFICER just turn up with the police here in cambridge they were targeting everyone not just me there were several other different types of work being carried out in the street. they served me with a £300 fine unles i could produce a waste license in 7 days i think . Whwn i spoke to the EA they tell you it takes 28 days to get license .Sent my dad to the local office with cash and had a license within 3 days took it to the council all cleared up and no fine to pay.

 

another quick note to remember if any one here gets a licence you have to keep a record of waste transporting.I use a carbon copy book you have to give a copy to the customer and get them to sign it.

similar to if you use a grab lorry to clear waste they give you ticket stating where the waste is from and where it s going to.

[Tom D]

Like all these "laws" which we are all supposed to follow, this is another one where the lack of enforcement leads to confusion and mass dissobediance. There is a sliding scale with total pikeys at one end and aaac's at the other we are all on that scale somwhere. Some may run vans on red diesel or fly tip, not those on here I hope, but for each of us who runs our own business we make decisions on a whole range of issues balancing what is technically right against what we / our client base can afford.

 

In an affluent urban environment such as Edinburgh I am sure that I could make money as an aaac, even with all the additional costs that would involve. However in the Borders I struggle to justify my prices even now, I compete against one man bands who's overheads will be a fraction of mine. Though I work mostly in Edinburgh I would hate to alienate my local market completely.

 

When they enforce this and other laws so that even the one man bands, pickeys etc are obaying them and we have a level playing field then I will buy a liscence.

 

BTW having read SEPAs website the definition of "waste" is wooly at best. I reckon a good lawyer would sucessfuly argue that chip and timber which had been "bought" from the client in liu of a discount on the job and was not "unwanted" would not be waste.

[Quickthorn]

As I posted before, the exemptions are due to change from October 2009, with consultation closing on 23rd October 2008.

 

consultation on revised waste exemptions from environmental permitting

 

Of the waste types relevant to tree work, it seems that a lot of situations currently "low risk" and not controlled will be elevated to exemption status, with limits.

 

eg

 

Storage/sale of wood chip/bark now exempt and limited to 100 tons and 12 months

Use of chip in gardens/open spaces now exempt and limited to 500 tons, whatever they mean by that

Storage of wood pending recovery now exempt and limited to 100 tons and 12 months.

 

These were previously low risk activities that you could do without having to notify anyone. They now propose that you will have to apply and pay for 3 year exemptions for all of these, and work within the limits.

 

Of the existing exemptions, anyone who composts or uses composting sites may well be affected. Exemption para 12 allowed for composting 1000 tons of material. This limit has been dropped to 40 tons if the waste is produced on site, 25 tons if material is brought in/out. Above that, you'd need an environmental permit.

 

Chipping will be regarded as a treatment of waste, and will require exemption, but I'm not sure if they really understand why we chip stuff. From the consultation document..

 

"3.3.13 There are some examples where it is considered that waste operations

carried out at the place of production are indeed waste management

operations under the WFD and exemptions have been provided for these.

In this situation, the treatment results in a change to the waste that means

the treated waste will have a different effect on the environment or human

health than the original waste. One example of this is the crushing of

waste discharge lamps. [...] Another example is the chipping of

plant tissue waste. The chipping operation is usually done to assist in its

subsequent use or treatment e.g. mulch or composting rather than to

facilitate onward transport."

 

For other processes where they crush, compact or change stuff to help with transport, they're not regarded as waste management operations and so don't come under all of this..yet I'm sure most people buy a chipper mainly to get more stuff onto their trucks ie help with transport.

 

Anyway, we've got til 23rd October to have a say. I notice they have included the Arb Association as consultees..I'd be interested to know how they've responded.