In a recent survey, 67% of large- or medium-sized food and drink companies who were questioned said they were keen to use edoc (electronic duty of care), a free online system to record waste transfers that’s being developed by the Environment Agency in partnership with the waste sector for rollout in January 2014.
More than half (55%) of smaller food and drink businesses said that they too would be interested in transferring.
The introduction of edoc will provide a modern, quick and easy alternative to the exchange of paper Waste Transfer Notes (WTNs), which all food and drink businesses across the UK have to fill out every time they dispose of any waste or pass it on to a waste carrier or contractor.
The new system will save time and money spent filing, searching and retrieving waste transfer records manually, reduce paper and cut down on storage needs. And it will give companies in the food and drink sector easy access and the tools to interrogate their own waste data and identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste and cut disposal costs.
Bernard Amos, CEO at Helistrat, which provides waste management services for a variety of restaurants and food halls as well as food retailers such as Marks & Spencer, said: “The edoc system is a brilliant idea and I’d encourage all companies to take it up. More and more, we are moving towards paper-free ways of doing business and this makes perfect sense. It’s quicker, easier to trace and will help prevent fraud by removing the opportunity for people to take advantage of the revenue from waste. It will also be hugely time-saving.”
Scheduled to go live in January 2014, edoc is being developed under a four-year project co-financed by the European Commission (LIFE+). The UK-wide project is led by the Environment Agency with partnership with the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA), Reconomy (UK) Ltd, Welsh Government and Wrap (Waste & Resources Action Programme). The project also has the full support of Defra and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Use of edoc will not be mandatory, but the project partners hope that the benefits it offers will encourage businesses to make the move online.
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