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Environmental Enforcement Officer
All you need to know about becoming an environmental officer!
Qualifications/ Experience needed:
Requires a qualification in a relevant field. I have a degree in environmental science and a post grad. diploma as well. But I reckon what got me the job was having experience in industry prior to this job. It meant that I was familiar with the regulatory side of things and had already seen what different environmental legislation there was.
Your Typical Day:
Get into work after an hour’s drive, look through any correspondence that came in the previous day i.e. emails, letters etc. Then go for a wee break before heading out on the road inspecting various businesses and facilities such as building sites and waste disposal contractors. While out visiting these sites, I may come across some illegal dumping/burning and investigate these as I come across them.
What do you love about your job?
I get to meet a lot of people of all sorts, good and bad. Everyday is a little different as there are different tasks to carry out and I get to be outside a lot, which suits me. It also feels like I’m making a difference. I’m educating people as I go, for instance, lots of people think that it’s okay to burn rubbish, especially paper and cardboard, but it is actually illegal. Once people know, they will stop and look into how they can recycle and reduce the amount of waste that they have to pay to get rid of. Before I got the job, whenever I would see a bag of rubbish thrown by the side of the road, I would say how I’d love to find out who did it and make them clean up or catch them out and now I’m being paid to do that, so it’s great.
What do you hate about your job?
Not a whole lot. They don’t have green tea in the canteen, which gets my goat a little. As well, sometimes things can be very slow to happen with regard to processing a complaint etc. but this is just the systems in place. I haven’t been in the job long enough to find anything about it that I hate really. I suppose I’m one of the lucky ones who is actually doing something that they want to do. I know a lot of people who are in jobs that they just have no interest in. It really helps if you’re interested in your work.
How does a young person get started in a career like yours?
Well, one way is to get qualified and then get a bit of experience under the belt. You’re going to be starting at the bottom or nearly at the bottom in most jobs, so it takes a while. Another way is if you get a job in a local authority, then you can look to train yourself with a view towards moving in the direction of environmental protection.
Qualities you need for this job?
You need to be able to talk to people and get on with them, while still ensuring that the environmental laws of the land are being taken seriously. Thick skin is also useful as some people who are caught for abusing their environment can be quite abusive, they just don’t like being caught. The ability to quote legislation is also quite useful as most people cock their ears up when they hear someone saying “well under the Waste Management Act 1996, section 34 blah blah blah’’. You sound a lot more authoritive if you can do this.
Advice for wannabes:
Get qualified and be interested. Try to get involved in something that appeals to you.
