EA receives funding to replace waste transfer notes with internet system

• Posted On: 27/07/2010 10:23:26

• Category: Waste Management

The Environment Agency (EA) has received £1.74 million (€2.09 million) in funding from the European Commission to change the current paper-based system for waste transfer notes to an electronic one. This will form the EA’s Electronic Duty of Care Project.

Waste transfer notes are currently used to document the movement between waste collection and waste disposal. Every load of waste will have one of these notes - recording the type and amount of waste and creating a cohesive paper trail – meaning that there are around 25 million of these paper notes produced by the UK annually (as estimated by the European Commission). Approximately 150 million more of these waste transfer notes are currently being stored in archives, as they must legally be kept for a minimum of two years.

At the time of granting the funding, the European Commission called this current system:

“a relatively inefficient and complicated process for both waste-chain stakeholders and regulators, not to mention the associated environmental costs".

The EC has awarded the EA half of the £3.48 million funding they need to launch the Electronic Duty of Care Project, which will hopefully start in 2012. By introducing an internet-based system, the goal is to replace around 18 million paper waste transfer notes a year by 2015.