Business Innovation And Product Development
By Waste Or Sewage Businesses
New and innovative technologies/products/processes or services might improve your business, and some ‘green’ technologies could benefit the environment, but before using these new technologies you need to consider all of the impacts that they might have on the environment.
Examples of business and technological innovation include new:
- Uses of waste
- Waste recycling or reprocessing activities
- Waste water treatment methods
- Approaches to cleaning up land contamination or water pollution
- Environmental and clean technologies
- Uses of chemistry and chemicals
- Uses of biotechnology or nanotechnology.
Before investing any money in using innovative products/processes, you should get in contact with your environmental regulator as soon as you can so that they can give you any other advice. You must also ensure that you have all the correct permits/licenses and exemptions before you start any developments or trial activities.
Using chemicals (REACH)
If, within your business, you use or manufacture chemical substances, you must comply with the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), Regulation.
If you use a substance in an unusual way, then you should let your suppliers know the details about how you intend to use the chemical. However if you feel that this information will compromise your business, then you do not have to give the information, but you must carry out your own safety assessments and you must make sure that you provide the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) with this information.
Field trials and testing your new process or technology
You will need approval from your environmental regulator to test/use any new process or technology that you might have developed. The environmental regulator will assess your new technology; however in some circumstances you might not need your environmental regulator’s permission for a trial run of your new product/process, but you should be careful as causing pollution is an offence for which you could be prosecuted.
To make sure that you are fully prepared before your test trial you should:
- Contact your environmental regulator as early as possible
- Be ready to give all the information needed as quickly as possible, e.g. chemical descriptions of the product and past trials.
To control air pollution you must have written authorization from your environmental regulator or local council if your tests are likely to cause emissions in the air.
To prevent water pollution you must have permission from your environmental regulator before you release anything unclean into uncontaminated water, surface waters or ground waters.
If you are taking water from surface or ground waters then you will need an abstraction license unless you are taking water from a mains supply.
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