Over 100 businesses from across the waste, retail, construction and healthcare sectors were given the first glimpse of edoc - the UK's new national online system to record waste transfers - at RWM 2013 in Birmingham this week, ahead of its launch in January.
Edoc - which stands for Electronic Duty of Care - is being developed by the Environment Agency in partnership with the waste sector and UK government bodies. Set to transform the current paper-based waste transfer note (WTN) system, edoc will provide a free, modern, quick and easy alternative to having to complete WTNs by hand, saving businesses across the UK time, effort and money.
The new system, which will go live in January 2014, will allow businesses across the UK to create, share, edit, sign and record all waste transfers electronically, significantly reducing administrative tasks and in some cases saving businesses up to 50% of the cost associated with the creation, storage and retrieval of WTNs. For more information businesses can visit www.edoconline.co.uk where they can also register their interest in adopting the new system and will receive regular updates on edoc.
At the exclusive preview event held at RWM, the team behind edoc explained the benefits of the system, how it is being developed and invited a selection of business users to talk through their own reasons for wanting to adopt edoc when it is launched. A video showcasing the system's key features was screened for the first time and the newly-launched edoc microsite unveiled to the audience.
Mat Crocker, head of illegals and waste at the Environment Agency, introduced the preview event. Also speaking were Steve Lee, chief executive of one of the project's key partners, CIWM (Chartered Institution of Wastes Management), as well as Brian Handcock, head of sustainability at construction group, Morgan Sindall, and Bernard Amos, CEO of waste management consultancy, Helistrat, just two of the businesses that are planning to transfer to edoc when it is launched at the start of 2014.
As Mat Crocker explained, there has already been a great deal of interest in the new system from a range of different industries.
"Around 23 million new WTNs are produced every year and have to be stored for two years, adding up to a huge amount of wasted paper, not to mention the administrative headache they can cause in terms of filing, storage and retrieval.
"We have been extremely encouraged by the response to today's event. There is clearly an appetite for a new, easier and more effective way to record waste transfers and we are keen to capitalise on the interest that is out there."
Steve Lee, chief executive of CIWM explained why they are so heavily involved in the development of edoc. Steve said "We support the production of edoc because we are confident that it will allow businesses across the UK to carry out a wide range of tasks which will help to modernise and streamline waste transfer recordings in the future.
In fact it is thought that edoc could replace the need for costly business waste surveys, saving governments around 拢1 million per annum. We welcome the change and look forward to its launch in January 2014"
Key features of edoc include:
路 The ability to create waste transfer notes and share them between the parties involved
路 Review, edit, sign and store waste transfer notes electronically
路 Receive email notifications when there is a WTN for your attention or when a change has been made to a note by another party
路 View a permanent log of all actions performed on a WTN, by whom and when. With edoc, businesses can also create season tickets, with the option to include multiple waste types, containers and collection frequencies.
路 Option to use a simple tracking feature for transfers involving more than one movement.
路 The system also allows for bulk upload of multiple waste transfer details in one go.
路 Users can choose to enter more details about their waste than are required for duty of care compliance, with pick-lists, drop-down menus, prompts and templates making it easy to complete fuller records which will in turn contribute to a more complete and accurate picture of waste produced across the UK than ever before.
路 It will be quick and easy to search and retrieve WTNs for audit or compliance purposes
路 Users will be able to search their own records according to a wide range of fields and filter to create valuable reports for business planning, resource management and other uses.
Edoc is being developed under a four year project co-financed by the European Commission (LIFE+) by the Environment Agency in partnership with the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM), Reconomy, WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme), Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and Welsh Government. It also has the full support of Defra and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).