Recent Recycling Legislation

Controlled Waste Regulations 6 April 2011:

Defra and the Welsh Assembly are proposing to replace the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 with the Controlled Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, coming into force onApril 6th. The proposed regulations will be of interest to local authorities, managers of premises who currently pay a waste collection charge (such as prisons, hospitals and universities) and private waste contractors.

The main proposals include:

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 (Date of enforcement to be confirmed):

Will require businesses to confirm that they have applied the waste management hierarchy when transferring waste, and include a declaration on their waste transfer note or consignment note.

The hierarchy sets out, in order of priority, the waste management options that should be considered:

1. Waste prevention
2. Preparing of waste for reuse
3. Waste recycling
4. Recovery, e.g. energy recovery at EfW
5. Disposal at Landfill.

Whenever waste is passed on to someone else, the holder will have to declare on the waste transfer note, or consignment note for hazardous waste, that the waste management hierarchy has been applied. It must also include on the waste transfer note the 2007 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code of the holder transferring the waste.

The regulations implement the revised EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98, which sets requirements for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste and will therefore affect all waste producers. Theywill introduce atwo-tier system for waste carrier, broker and dealer registration – upper tier and lower tier.

All organisationswill need to register as an upper tier carrier or broker if they carry, broker or deal in other people’s controlled waste, which includes commercial, industrial, household and hazardous waste, unless they are in one of the lower tier categories listed below. They will also need to register as an upper tier carrier if they carry their own construction or demolition waste Upper tier registration lasts for three years, the same as waste carrier or broker registration currently. All such organisationswill continue to pay a fee to register or renew their registration. They will only need to register as a lower tier carrier if they only carry, broker or deal in animal by-products, waste from mines and quarries, or waste from agricultural premises, or are a Local Authority or a charity or voluntary organisation.

From the end of December 2013 if you normally and regularly carry controlled waste produced by your own business, other than construction or demolition waste, then you will also have to register as a lower tier carrier. Registration as a lower tier carrier, broker or dealer is currently free and lasts indefinitely, unless the registration is revoked or withdrawn by the Environment Agency.

New powers for EA:

The Environment Agency in England and Wales will start using new enforcement powers, called civil sanctions, from 4January 2011. These can be used against a business committing certain environmental offences, as an alternative to prosecution and criminal penalties of fines and imprisonment. This means that they can take action that is proportionate to the offence and the offender, and reflect the fact that most offences committed by businesses are unintentional, whilst still being able to use criminal punishments for serious offences.

The government believes civil sanctions will make environmental law enforcement more flexible and effective for both regulators and businesses. The new civil sanctions the EA can use against a business committing certain environmental offences include:

Compliance notice - written notice to take steps to ensure that an offence does not continue or recur.