New Workplace Recycling
11 March 2024 [Updated: 22 March 2024]
The way we get rid of waste is altering – and we need your help to get ready for the changes.
Laws on workplace recycling are changing as Welsh Government issue new regulations on all businesses, public sector and charities.
From 6 April 2024, the new regulations on the collection and disposal of waste mean all businesses in Wales will be obligated to separate their waste for recycling by segregating different recyclable items into different waste containers.
Workplace Recycling is the new set of standardised regulations for the collection and disposal of different waste streams.
From April workplaces will need to separate paper and card, glass, metal, plastic and cartons, food waste, electrical and electronic equipment as well as textiles.
Each group of materials must be kept separate from each other, as putting all waste into a single bin will NOT be allowed.
Workplaces and business will be issued a fixed monetary penalty (FMP) of between £300 and £500 if any breaches are proven.
At Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, we are already working hard to reduce our environmental footprint and we already recycle food, metal, paper and cardboard, plastics and cans, wood, glass, waste electrical equipment, vapes in our mental health services and toothbrush recycling.
In just nine months of the 2023/2024 financial year, 646 tonnes of our clinical orange bagged hazardous waste has undergone Alternative Heat Treatment. At the end of this process it is shredded by Atlantic Recycling and then used as fuel for Aberthaw Cement kiln in the Vale of Glamorgan.
All food waste from retail and patient catering is segregated separately from all other waste while 22 tonne of cardboard has been collected by Elite charity to make animal bedding.
Our Sustainability Team is also challenging colleagues to act for the future and sign up to a Sustainability Pledge with monthly commitments to make small changes for the good of the planet in 2024, the theme for March is recycling.
As we prepare for the new legislation to come into effect, we will need you to help us prepare for the changes now. Instead of disposing of food waste in the bins around the health board if you can’t find a specific food waste bin, please take your food waste home with you.
The new law also includes a ban on sending any amount of food waste to the sewers either down the sink or in a drain or toilet.
The segregation of paper cardboard etc is in place in community Woodland House, Barry Hospital and Cardiff Royal Infirmary however there will be a roll out programme across the UHB which will be completed before October 2025. The waste team would contact areas over the forthcoming months.