Posted By paul harman Good Morning all, My compnay has just identified that a contractor we are using has flytipped some ACM's within a skip on one of our projects. He has been identifed by means of cctv footage supplied by the local authority highways department.Can anyone tell me what legislation he has broken so that we can include it in his contract termination letter. The local authority do not seem to want to take any legal action against this comapny. Is this usual??

Posted By paul harman Hi Bob This contractor was working for us at the time but had nothing to do with any asbestos related works, the ACM'S (Chrysotile & Amosite) had been brought form somewhere else. We have not identified any ACM's on this project and the illegally dumped materials were removed by a licensed contractor after it was discovered. I am just ammazed that the local authority environmental section do not want to throw the book at them.

Posted By Paul Oliver Paul, I would consider reporting the matter to the HSE and the EA, otherwise why should you deal with contractor yourself. They will only shrug their shoulders and say it won't happen again. They need to be made aware of the seriousness of illegal dumping of waste.

Posted By Robert K Lewis Paul Unless you can prove the material came from somewhere else then you need to be careful in using such a statement against the contractor. The statement that you have not identified ACMs on this project is not in itself proof that none is present. Even a Type 3 survey report itself is no 100% guarantee that none exists - particularly if this is a council or other similar property under re-furbishment - you simply do not know with certainty that ACMs can be 100% excluded. Being devil's advocate I could construct a strong breach of contract case unless you can prove your case. You thus need to ensure that the form of contract you are using permits you determine the contract for an apparent single breach of legislation. Bob

Posted By Robert K Lewis Dave There is no offence yet under the EPA unless Paul's people had arranged for it to be removed complete with acms, I fear- Remember that he is the Producer of the waste because it is his skip. Any offence under DoC will therefore be his. The DoC regs place a specific duty on the Producer to maintain his waste secure and if the facility is open to abuse it is not secure. It is the cleft stick I'm afraid. I know how he feels as it is a running sore on site. Last time it happened to me the guy owned the subcontract company and I was able to identify him by the personalised number plate that was included in his garden clearance. He was unhappy that his operatives then spent a day emptying and sorting the skip of his weekend garage and garden clearance rubbish. That also reminds me of a manager who argued vehemently that he did not produce waste from his site, only rubbish - hence he did not need transfer notes. Bob

Posted By Robert K Lewis Dave If he had put it on the street then he would have committed an offence but it was placed in a skip supplied on the site where he was working so it is still in the control of the Producer. The fact that it was the wrong location is actually not relevant here. The producer has full responsibility for waste management on the site not the subcontractor. Can we prove an intent for it to be simply sent off site as normal waste. Perhaps they may even argue they did not know it was asbestos, thus Paul's company had not properly undertaken a survey prior to work. I don't like it but without firm evidence the issue is not easily resolved. Bob