Members of the trade body the British Cleaning Council have been warned that new pollution prevention and control legislation could substantially affect all sectors of the cleaning business.

At a recent meeting of the BCC, the co-ordinating body for the UK cleaning industry, John Bale said: “While it is clear that many cleaning industry businesses are setting their sights on achieving such environmental standards as ISO 140001 … members may not yet be aware of the implications of the new Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control and Contaminated Land regulations, but they need to sit up and take notice.

"This latest enabling legislation will impinge dramatically on how individual companies operate, and if they get it wrong, they could, in the worst-case scenario, even be shut down. But even if it doesn’t quite get that far, the system of fines is very similar to that in operation under health and safety legislation; in the Crown Court, for instance, fines imposed could be unlimited.”

Bale, who represents both the British Association for Chemical Specialities and the Soap & Detergent Industry Association on the BCC, reminded his audience that the Environmental Protection Act had been introduced in 1990 as an enabling act, John told them that the latest additions to the Act had given it considerably more teeth: “The IPPC regulations and the Contaminated Land regulations cover everything that could possibly have an environmental impact on air, water or land, and are more complex than any previous legislation.”

Although aimed principally at larger chemical companies and sites, the law also applies to the public sector, as well as to smaller enterprises who might not necessarily be aware of or have the resources to comply with the legislation, he went on. Window or carpet cleaners, for instance, might no longer be able to empty their dirty water into the nearest drain, but may have to take it away for disposal at a special site. Meanwhile, even the larger industrial and commercial concerns may suffer, due to the increased demands of the new legislation.

“The legislation now asks for Best Available Technique (BAT) rather than `Best Available Technique Not Entailing Excessive Cost’ (BATNEEC), and the requirements of BAT may well impose additional burdens on industry. Companies may find that they are forced to make improvements to their processes and activities sooner than they might normally have done.”

Details of the new legislation can be found at: www.environment.detr.gov.uk/ppc/index.htm

For further details of the British Cleaning Council and its member bodies, see the Council’s website at: www.britishcleaningcouncil.org