IN MARCH this year, the law on how waste is handled changed yet again following the introduction of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
The regulations implement key parts of the European Waste Framework Directive 2008 and the changes will affect any business which produces, carries, stores, treats or disposes of waste. So what’s different now?
Waste Management Hierarchy
When dealing with waste, businesses need to consider the waste management hierarchy, which sets out the priority order for waste management. This is:
Prevention of waste, preparing waste for reuse, recycling and recovery, with the option of last resort being disposal.
This requires companies to place more emphasis on waste prevention before considering preparing waste for reuse, recycling or recovery. Only once all these options have been explored and discounted should disposal be considered as an option for dealing with waste.
Businesses have been required to confirm that they have applied this hierarchy since September 28, and need to include a declaration on their waste transfer or consignment note when transferring waste. This will also affect businesses with an environmental permit as they will also have a new condition applied to implement the waste management hierarchy.
Waste Carrier Registration
If your business carries waste for someone else, then it needs to be registered with the Environment Agency. If you have your waste collected by someone else, then it is important to check that they too are registered. You can do this online by checking the Environment Agency’s public register. These are existing duties which are important to be aware of. Another aspect that the new regulations introduce is a two-tier system for the registration of waste carriers, brokers and dealers.
Upper tier carriers are professional waste carriers subject to similar controls as under previous legislation. However, from the end of December 2013, most businesses carrying controlled waste as part of their business will need to register as a lower tier carrier. This includes small to medium-sized businesses like carpet fitters (laying new carpet and carrying away old carpet), chimney sweeps (carrying away ashes removed from chimneys), gardeners (green wastes) and tradesmen. Businesses carrying construction and demolition waste will be required to register in the upper tier category.
Those businesses already registered as a professional collector or transporter of waste before March 29 will automatically transfer to the new registration system.
No doubt the Government is hopeful that the new rules will have a positive impact on waste management and making organisations think differently about how they deal with their waste.
It is important, however, for organisations not currently registered with the Environment Agency, to consider whether they fall within the scope of the new rules for waste carrier registration and ensure that they do so before the December 2013 deadline.
:: Emma Feeney is a solicitor in the environment & safety team at leading law firm, Dickinson Dees.