About trade waste

It is up to everyone to safely manage their waste. It is an offence to discharge trade waste without holding a trade waste consent.

We are empowered to manage trade waste by the Water Act 1989. Discharging trade waste into the sewer system has the potential to cause harm to our assets, staff, public health and/or the environment.

You also need to take reasonable steps to eliminate or minimise the risks of harm to human health and the environment from your waste discharge. Learn more by visiting EPA Victoria and by adopting cleaner production methods.
As a trade waste discharger, you have an obligation to take all reasonable steps to investigate alternatives to waste disposal i.e. avoid, reduce, re-use or recycle your waste.
Examples are:

• Installing pre-treatment apparatus to treat waste to an acceptable level or
• Implementing other cleaner production processes to manage waste to an acceptable level before it enters the sewer system
• Ensure treatment apparatus are installed by accredited / licenced personnel
• Have an up-to date trade waste consent
• Pay trade waste charges
• Self-monitor trade waste discharges
• Maintain trade waste apparatus e.g. pump out food and oil interceptors
• Notify South East Water of any breaches to your consent
• Prevent and address non-compliances
• Prepare waste minimisation plans and risk profiles
• Cancel your consent when leaving the property to avoid ongoing fees

You must ensure your plumber lodges a plumbing application through PropertyConnect prior to connecting any treatment apparatus to the sewerage system. 

Council and/or EPA approvals may also be required. It is up to each trade waste customer to ensure they have obtained all the correct approvals required to operate their business.

Steps for cleaner production

If you’d like your organisation’s production methods to be cleaner, follow these steps:

1. Plan and organise
Develop indicative targets, goals and objectives of what you would like to achieve. For example, you may want to aim for a 10 per cent reduction in waste, water, energy and/or labour costs. Identify the staff who will work on a resource efficiency team.

2. Conduct a site assessment and develop a process map
Start from where goods enter the factory, through to processing and finally where goods are packaged and stored for delivery. Develop a flow diagram for the site to identify where materials are travelling throughout the site. This will help conduct a mass balance for the site.

3. Collect and record data
Record and review utility data against production output for the previous two years. This will help to identify your business’ performance and develop a snapshot of the current processes for which to benchmark against these changes. Determine how much your waste is costing you. (Include loss of raw materials, labour, energy, water and trade waste).

4. Develop an action plan
Develop a Resource Management Action Plan and follow these guidelines:
• Make the plan outcome focused.
• Make your plan simple and easy to follow.
• Assign timelines and responsibilities to key personnel.
• Tackle the simplest, most cost-effective issues first and develop the plan from there.

5. Implement your action plan
When implementing your action plan, keep the following points in mind:
• Prioritise actions from the most cost-effective with no capital costs to those that may require capital investment.
• Identify where the largest percentage of waste is being generated and target this area first.
• Start with opportunities that have direct financial benefits for no capital expenditure.
• Track and chart all actions and progress.
• Encourage continuous feedback and rewards for staff.
• Keep it simple.

6. Monitoring and continuous improvement
Once you’ve implemented the actions, it’s important to monitor performance to look for opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Monitor and track results
• Continuous feedback and rewards for staff
• Look at justifying any capital expenditure with costs saved through the program
• Set new targets, goals and objectives
• Start the process again and look for opportunities
• Remember this is not a one-off project – it should become part of your business’ daily operations.