Waste Disposal in Romford

Romford is the largest town in East London and is situated in the London Borough of Havering. The area is known as one of the best commercial, retail and entertainment districts in London, with the area seeing a good amount of investment and redevelopment over recent years. Romford’s waste disposal is looked after by Havering Council alongside the East London Waste Authority (ELWA) who also run facilities in the area. There are also a handful of independent rubbish clearance and skip hire companies within and around Romford that offer their services for domestic and commercial waste disposal.

Havering Council offers free rubbish and recycling collection on a weekly basis for all residents; however, businesses are expected to pay-in for their waste to be collected and disposed of by the council. Residential recycling and general rubbish can be also taken to several nearby recycling centres, giving residents plenty of waste disposal options.

Recycling centres at Gerpins Lane, Frizlands Lane, Jenkins Lane in Newham and Chigwell Road in Redbridge all offer their services to residents in Romford and are managed by the ELWA. Alongside these centres, there are also micro-recycling points around the town where you can dispose of glass, plastics, and textiles.

Of the 402,000 tonnes of waste collected by Romford’s local council over the last year, only 39% of it was recycled or reused. This is something that the council and local waste disposal businesses would like to change as Romford’s council has one of the highest local authority spends for waste management in London, Havering Council spends almost £60,000,000 a year on its waste activities.

Here at Wayst, we are focused on reducing the amount of rubbish that goes into landfill and we believe that by teaming up with highly qualified waste disposal companies we can greatly reduce the amount of waste that is contributed to landfill. The recycling rate for the waste we are responsible for is an average of 92% and we offer our services to businesses and individuals across the city, meaning that the more people who use our services, the more we can continue to benefit the environment.

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Wayst works with trusted waste carriers in your area to clear all types of waste, this can include, but is not limited to; paints, chemicals, asbestos, or electrical equipment. Many London boroughs have strict regulations on the disposal of what is deemed to be hazardous waste but Havering does dispose of a lot of these materials for a fee. However, council waste disposal processes can be time consuming and are not always an easy process. This becomes particularly inconvenient when dealing with dangerous substances such as asbestos. One of Wayst’s missions is to make the waste disposal process easy and hassle free. Our trusted service providers are experts in handling and removing hazardous materials in a way that is safe and thorough.

Residents can use several civic amenity sites run by the East London Waste authority, as well as a handful of independent, environmentally friendly waste transport and disposal firms around Romford. These specialised sites can recycle hazardous, confidential, clinical, and electrical waste among the other services they provide. For general recycling needs, Gerpins Lane RRC is the go-to for residents as it provides free disposal for household waste and a limited amount of DIY waste.

Commercial waste can be taken to Frizlands Lane and Jenkins Lane recycling centres only and is subject to charges depending on the load size. These two sites also offer hazardous waste disposal for materials like asbestos. To use this service, you must first call ahead to arrange a time to drop this waste off and always contact a staff member upon arrival.

Confidential waste can consist of things like CVs, payroll information, invoices and bank details. You may keep these documents in paper form or as data on a computer hard drive, but either way, it is vital to ensure that confidential waste is securely disposed of. Failing to identify confidential waste and disposing of it incorrectly carries a high risk and could lead to a security breach resulting in legal action.

You cannot dispose of business waste at Gerpins Lane RRC, so anything commercial - confidential or not, will have to be disposed of elsewhere. Document shredding services in the Romford area that offer secure, confidential services at their facilities, or even at the premises, meaning that you can watch the documents being safely destroyed and dispatched to a recycling centre.

Hard-drives and computers with confidential information can be disposed of by specialist IT disposal services using data wiping software. Wayst works with specialist confidential IT disposal companies that use industry leading software, following industry leading quality and security standards to completely wipe computer hard drives and other sensitive devices. When using a private waste disposal solution for your confidential waste, we make sure you receive the correct documentation associated with the clearance and disposal of your confidential waste by checking our partners through a security screening beforehand.

Hazardous waste can be challenging to dispose of, as it poses a threat to the environment if it is put into landfill and can present a danger when using other disposal techniques, such as incineration. Havering council collects some hazardous waste for a fee, but for some hazardous chemicals and asbestos, you can contact the City of London council for collection. Gerpins Lane RRC will take small amounts of wetted asbestos, but you must contact the centre before arriving with it. This recycling centre will also take hazardous materials like paints and oils. If there is a specific type of hazardous waste that you wish to dispose of, you can check the Havering Council website for directions on how best to do so.

At Wayst, our goal is to recycle everything that we collect through our network of trusted partners. This means that even hazardous waste is eligible for recovery when possible. The hazardous waste management companies we partner with transport hazardous materials, like cooking oil, to be recycled into biofuel, which is a practice that is also used on some of the general waste provided to Gerpins Lane RRC.

Clinical waste is a waste stream produced by healthcare services, individuals with medical needs, and businesses like veterinary services, care homes and laboratories. Improper disposal of clinical waste can cause damage to the environment as well as the spreading of illness and disease, so it is essential to always use a trusted waste disposal company who practices responsible waste management. At Wayst, we always work with reputable contractors that offer the safest and most environmentally friendly disposal methods for clinical waste.

The borough council mostly manages the clinical waste in Romford and provides, collects, and disposes of yellow bin bags containing clinical waste for homes and businesses that require it. You must store surgical waste and syringes within approved containers provided by the council, as anything else will not be collected by them. This includes the purple boxes for cytotoxic waste that must be returned to the hospital. This council service is provided for free to residents and costs businesses £14 per clinical waste bag.

Anybody who intends to dispose of their waste has a legal ‘Duty of Care’ in the UK, according to The Environmental Protection Act 1990. This means they must keep their waste to a minimum where possible, sort and store waste safely, complete a waste transfer notes when necessary, ensure that the waste carrier disposes of the waste legally.

The level of compliance differs amongst most operators, however to make it clear for you a contractor becomes compliant with waste disposal regulations in the following ways:

Is licensed by the Environment Agency for the work they do

Ensures they allow you to adhere to your duty of care by providing you with all the necessary paperwork from a waste collection which needs to detail the waste trail to ensure transparency from producer to a carrier to disposal, this includes:
- A Waste Transfer Note for ALL waste clearances which details the producer (you) the carrier (the waste contractor) and the disposal site (the waste transfer facility)
- A Consignment Notes for hazardous waste clearance (if disposed from a business address)
- Waste and environmental reporting providing recycling, re-use and landfill figures

Insurances are key for compliance too, the level of insurance a waste contractor is covered for should align with the level of work they are undertaking this includes:
- Public liability insurance
- Employer’s liability insurance
- Vehicle insurance