Roberts Peter - Electrical Installation Work: Level 3

When you have completed this chapter you should:

Understand the environmental legislation, working practices and principles that are relevant to work activities.

Understand how work methods and procedures can reduce material wastage and impact on the environment.

Understand how and where environmental technology systems can be applied.

Specify the current, relevant legislation for processing waste

Describe what is meant by the term environment

Environmental laws and regulations

The environment describes the world in which we live, work and play; it relates to our neighbourhood and surroundings and the situation in which we find ourselves.

Definition

The environment describes the world in which we live, work and play. It relates to our neighbourhood, surroundings and the situation in which we find ourselves.

Environmental laws protect the natural environment in which we all live, including: plants, forests and mountains among other elements.

If an offence is identified in the area in which we now think of as environmental it can be of two kinds:

An offence in common law, which means damage to property, nuisance or negligence leading to a claim for damages.

A statutory offence against one of the laws dealing with the protection of the environment. These offences are nearly always crimes and punished by fines or imprisonment rather than by compensating any individual.

Everything we do affects other people or other elements, for instance creating new houses creates jobs but this also impacts the environment given the new amount of materials that have to be provided. We therefore define the materials and resources we use to build things that impact on the environment as the built environment.

Figure 1.1 Eco buildings such as this one are becoming more and more common today.

However, we also impact on the environment in other ways, which is why we have developed laws and legislation to deal with the environment but devolving responsibility for each part such as: air, water, land noise, radioactive substances. Where organizations activities impact upon the environmental laws they are increasingly adopting environmental management systems that comply with ISO 14001. Let us now look at some of the regulations and try to see the present picture at the beginning of the new millennium.

Environmental Protection Act 1990

In the context of environmental law, the Environmental Protection Act 1990 was a major piece of legislation. The main sections of the Act are:

Table 1.1The Environmental Protection Act ensures that companies set up an effective environmental management system

Part 1	Integrated pollution control by HM Inspectorate of Pollution, and air pollution control by Local Authorities
Part 2	Wastes on land
Part 3	Statutory nuisances and clean air
Part 4	Litter
Part 5	Radioactive Substances Act 1960
Part 6	Genetically modified organisms
Part 7	Nature conservation
Part 8	Miscellaneous, including contaminated land

The Royal Commission of 1976 identified that a reduction of pollutant to one medium, air, water or land, then led to an increase of pollutant in another. The need to take an integrated approach to pollution control is therefore stressed.