Trade waste and recycling collections

Procedures relating to our commercial waste and recycling collections

Businesses and individuals have a legal duty of care to take all reasonable steps to store and dispose of commercial waste safely. For more information on a business’s duty of care, including help on how your business can meet its legal obligations, please visit 'How do I do it?' - Right Waste, Right Place.

As a business you are obliged by law to arrange collection and disposal of waste, to comply with the requirements of  Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 and the Environmental Protection Act (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991

To find out where our waste goes please visit our helpful webpage

We will work with you to provide you with an agreement appropriate to what your business needs. It is your responsibility as a business owner to determine what those needs are and review them as necessary.

Collection frequency

We can provide you with a regular waste and recycling collection service at a competitive price.

We regularly provide weekly, fortnightly, monthly or seasonal collections, or if you have specific requirements please get in touch with the team on 01271 318508.

Please note that the location of your business may affect the collection frequency or the capacity that we can offer. Our commercial waste officers will discuss this with you and will only offer you what we can provide.

Collection day and time

After we have accepted your enquiry, you will be provided with a confirmation of service which will include your collection day.

All waste must be presented at the agreed collection point by 6am.

All bank holiday weeks we collect one day later than usual.

The time we collect from you may vary; we aim to make all collections between 6am and 4pm, however in the summer periods we may collect from 6am up to 6pm, this is mainly due to traffic in and around the district.

In exceptional circumstances such as severe weather conditions or breakdowns we will do our upmost to still collect your waste on the same day, please check the home page on our website for our latest operational alerts.

We reserve the right to change the collection schedule for operational reasons. We aim to give customers adequate advance notice of any changes (ie a minimum of 2 weeks’ notice).

If you have a domestic dwelling at the same location as your agreement; the domestic dwelling will continue to receive collections as per their normal collection schedule. Waste between domestic and commercial dwellings must not be mixed.

Bin allocation

We will supply you with the appropriate containers to suit your business, such as:

  • wheelie bins, available in various sizes from 240 litre up to 1,100 litres
  • recycling containers, available in various sizes from 240 litre up to 1,100 litres

It is your responsibility to keep the container(s) in a clean condition after emptying.

We will only collect from containers that we have provided.

For more information relating to our trade waste containers please visit our helpful webpage

Missed bins

A missed collection is where you have informed us that your container has not been collected despite you presenting waste before 6am and the crew has completed their round for that day.

You must report missed collections to us within two working days of the missed collection. No missed collections will be logged after two working days.

If we got it wrong…

We will attempt to return within five working days of your missed collection. If we do return within five working days, we consider this as the collection taking place on the correct day and therefore you will not be entitled to any credit of that day’s collection. If we cannot return in that timeframe we will collect double at the next collection.

In the instance that we miss your waste three times within six months, you are entitled to raise a formal complaint. The best way to do this is to call the Trade Waste Manager on 01271 318508 or email tradewaste@northdevon.gov.uk or by following our feedback procedure on our website.

If something else went wrong…

If the crew informs us that the waste was not presented (ie Not Out or Bin Locked) for them to collect, we will not return to collect it and you will still be charged, as we do not consider this as a missed collection. The waste will have to wait until the next scheduled collection.

If the crew report blocked access either (ie Parked Cars, No Access or Gates Locked), we will not return to collect it and you will still be charged, as we do not consider this as a missed collection. The waste will have to wait until the next scheduled collection.

If our access is blocked due to road works, we will make arrangements to revisit to collect waste once the road works have been cleared. If the road works are lengthy, we will make alternative arrangements to collect the waste.

It is your responsibility to ensure that waste is presented for us to collect by 6am on your collection day.

Collection point

A location at the Collection Address where the bins will be collected from.

All containers must be presented kerbside by 6am for us to collect, unless there is no safe and/or accessible kerbside at the property. Kerbside is defined as outside of the private boundary of the property, next to the roadside.

If your waste is not presented at your Collection Point by 6am on your collection day, the crew will mark the waste as Not Out, we will not return to collect it and you will still be charged.

Any Collection Point that is different to kerbside must be agreed in writing with the trade waste team.

If you need to change or discuss your Collection Point please contact the trade waste team on 01271 318508.

It is your responsibility to ensure that waste is presented for us at your Collection Point to collect by 6am on your collection day.

Container overloading

Overloading containers can cause damage to our vehicles, cause manual handling injuries and have a negative environmental impact. For this reason, we ask that customers take care to avoid overloading trade waste containers.

It will be your responsibility to reduce the weight of the bin before we will empty it.

Any containers that are found to be overloaded will not be collected and you will still be charged.

Contaminated containers

Contamination is where the wrong waste has been placed in the wrong container. The crew are not permitted to hand sort any container due to health and safety.

If a container is contaminated at the time of collection, a sticker will be placed on the container informing you what is wrong. The crew will also inform the commercial waste officers who may contact you to inform you.

The contaminating waste must be removed before being re-presented again for us to collect.

In the event that we unknowingly collect contaminated waste from you, we will contact you and inform you that you will be liable for the full cost of any additional charges incurred in disposing of the contamination.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the waste presented for us to collect is in the correct containers.

Any containers that are found to be contaminated will not be collected and you will still be charged.

Trapped waste

Trapped waste is any waste that is trapped or frozen in the wheelie bin that does not fall out when tipped into one of our vehicles.

At the next collection we will reattempt to collect the waste and any side waste as a result of the failed previous collection.

It is your responsibility to ensure that the waste presented for us to collect is not trapped in any way.

Any containers that are found to include trapped waste we will not return before your next collection date and you will still be charged.

Bins left out

We reserve the right to remove, without prior notice, trade waste bins that are reported as left out on a public highway on non-collection days. There will be a fee for re-delivery.

Side waste/closed lid

All waste presented must be contained inside your container and not on top of or to the side; any waste that is not inside the container will be classified as side waste and will be charged as Side Waste.

We will only collect waste contained within the container, with the container lid fully closed

It is your responsibility to ensure that waste presented for us to collect is inside the container and not presented as side waste.

We reserve the right to reject any side waste.

Enforcement

Our Enforcement Officers can request to see a copy of a business’s current and up-to-date Trade Waste/Duty of Care Agreement which the business must produce. Failure to produce, or have one, can result in us issuing a FPN.

Our officers can visit businesses, free of charge, to make a waste assessment and offer advice.