Cleaning procedures must be established and documented for all parts of the premises. Suitable equipment and cleaning agents must be provided Hygiene control must include regular inspections. Results must be documented and kept for at least two years.

The designated area for cleaning vehicles, containers and receptacles used for transporting animal by-products must be cleaned on a suitably drained hardstanding. Sawdust may be used to absorb any liquid arising and the wet sawdust incinerated subsequently.

You must have adequate water supplies and equipment e.g. brushes, hoses, powerwashers, for cleaning.

The incinerator plant operator should delegate a person to undertake an inspection of all parts of the premises on a weekly basis (or as appropriate depending on throughput etc), so that necessary cleaning can be carried out as required. Details should be recorded.

There must be total physical separation between the incinerator and any livestock and their feed and bedding, with fencing where necessary.

Livestock farmers must incinerate only their own fallen stock; they must not incinerate fallen stock from other farms or premises other than in shared incinerators on non-livestock premises.

Where pigs and poultry are cut up, for example for post-mortem purposes, they must be cut up on a suitable area, the fluid collected and incinerated where practicable, and the by-products incinerated immediately.

Animal by-products should, where practicable, be placed straight in the furnace without direct handling.

Ash disposal now

Defra are considering whether to continue allowing ash to be spread on the land. Until a decision is taken and until the forthcoming agricultural waste controls are in force, ash may be spread to provide an agricultural benefit to land.

Ash disposal when new waste rules are introduced

Agricultural waste will become a "controlled waste" later this year and ash from agricultural premises will then have to be disposed of as a "controlled waste". As an incinerator user, you will need a waste management licence, a Pollution Prevention and Control permit or to have registered an appropriate licensing exemption. Landspreading of ash will only be permitted when it is carried out under the terms of a waste management licence or is carried out under the terms of a licensing exemption.

Source: National Pig Association - Digby Scott - February 2004