Retail business resource efficiency

The waste that your retail business produces must be handled correctly. You have a legal duty of care to handle and dispose of waste responsibly - see duty of care for business waste.

You should reuse and recycle the waste that you can't avoid producing - for more information see recycling your retail waste.

In order to reuse and recycle as much of your waste as possible, you should store different waste materials separately.

Retail waste management

To ensure your business reuses and recycles the maximum levels of waste materials possible, you should make a number of changes to your business' day-to-day operations including:

• providing clear instructions to staff on what they should do with waste materials
• investigating any centralised recycling services that might be on offer in your area
• clearly labelling bins and other containers with the waste they should contain
• flattening boxes and other materials so they take up less room in the bin
• always separating clean and dirty recyclables
• separating food waste and investigating how you can recycle or properly dispose of it

Waste storage areas in your retail business

The storage of waste before it is disposed of should also be a key component of your waste management practices.

Waste storage areas should:

• be safe and accessible and, if possible, specifically designed for waste storage
• include bins and other containers that can cope with the type and volume of waste you need to store
• have labels on all containers showing the type of waste allowed
• prevent water from becoming contaminated by stored waste
• include a means of waste volume-reduction such as baling, compacting or shredding