| Guiding businesses through environmental regulations, NetRegs, UK, website an online information service, has recently launched new guidelines designed to help small businesses working in the production and processing of metals industries to comply with the environmental legislation governing their activities. NetRegs offers advice on good environmental practice and easy to understand guidelines on regulations governing the manufacture of both ferrous and non-ferrous metals, metal forming, wire drawing and metal casting. The site, www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs, is a joint initiative between the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment and Heritage Service (NI) in conjunction with the Small Business Service. The site is free-to-use and anonymous.
Environmental impacts associated with the metals production and processing industries range from air emissions, such as dust and carbon dioxide from scrap preparation, furnace fumes and finishing processes, to contaminated water discharges from material decontamination, cooling and wet scrubbing processes. Other impacts include land contamination, energy use and waste generation. The launch of the guidelines follows research commissioned for NetRegs which revealed that awareness of environmental regulations among small businesses in the UK remains low. The research found that 86% of small businesses questioned did not think their activities harmed the environment. But when prompted with a list of potentially damaging practices, nearly 60% said they conducted at least one of them. Only 18% could name any environmental legislation affecting them. Environment Agency Chairman, Sir John Harman, commented: �Many SMEs in the metals production and processing sectors already provide a valuable recycling function, re-using scrap materials and waste. The NetRegs guidelines have been designed to help them understand their statutory obligations and further improve their environmental performance, whether it be reducing their emissions to air and water or tackling noise problems and reducing energy use�.
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