An online campaign has been launched to assist small and medium-sized businesses struggling to get to grips with their Duty of Care obligations around waste laws.

The ‘Right Waste, Right Place’ campaign, organised by the Environmental Services Association, aims to provide ‘practical’ information for companies, partnerships, family businesses and sole traders on waste legislation.

The campaign estimates that some 56% of UK businesses are not complying with waste laws from how materials are produced and transported to how they are disposed of or treated.

It is backed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – which contributed £95,000 to the campaign – as well as the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM).

It follows the government’s decision to slim down its own 60-page guidance on Duty of Care compliance and replace it with a 13-page document that some in the industry have branded “too basic”.

Sam Corp, head of regulation at the ESA, which is leading the campaign, said: “Unfortunately being uninformed is no protection from the law, and we believe that more companies will find themselves exposed to prosecution unless they take the right steps to comply. The Right Waste, Right Place campaign is designed to help fill the very evident knowledge gap, especially with SMEs.”