The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011

The following is a legal update from Catherine:

The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 (finally!) came into force at the end of March, and implement changes to waste legislation made by the Revised Waste Framework Directive, as well as making long-awaited changes to the waste carriers and brokers regime. If you have any sort of dealings with waste as a producer, carrier or treatment/disposal facility (so pretty much everyone!), then read on, and make yourself aware of the changes:

The waste hierarchy has now been given legal effect, rather than merely being a principle. From October 2011 there will be a declaration on WTNs and HWCNs that companies have applied the waste hierarchy.

SIC codes will have to be included on WTNs as well as HWCNs – again, this won’t take effect until October 2011.

For new environmental permits, they will contain conditions which state that operators will have to apply the waste management hierarchy (such conditions will be added to existing permits when they are reviewed).

New category of waste “dealer” = those who use an agent to buy and sell waste

New 2 tier system of registration for carriers, brokers and dealers:

Upper tier carrier or broker:

If you carry/broker/deal in other people’s controlled waste (unless you fall under a lower tier)

If you carry/broker/deal in your own construction and demolition waste

Existing carriers and brokers won’t have to do anything (and dealer will be automatically added to existing registration)

Lasts for 3 years as existing registration does

Fee for registration

Lower tier (referred to in the Regs as “specified persons”:

If you carry/broker/deal in animal by-products, waste from a mine or a quarry or waste from premises used for agriculture

If you carry/broker/deal in other people’s controlled waste and you are a waste collection, disposal or regulation authority or a charity or voluntary organisation (i.e. charities are no longer exempt) – those that are currently registered as exempt will automatically be transferred to the lower tier

If you normally and regularly carry controlled waste produced by your own business (other than construction or demolition waste) by end of December 2013

Registration lasts indefinitely

Free registration

A single registration will cover carrier/broker/dealer. In order to simplify the transition, the EA will automatically consider all registered carriers as carriers and dealers and all registered brokers as brokers and dealers.

Some changes to hazardous waste = a new category, H13 Sensitizing, will be added to the list of properties defining waste as hazardous (the former category H13 now becomes H15). This means that some previously non-hazardous wastes may be reclassified as hazardous wastes e.g. ecotoxicity added to the properties that can define a leachate as hazardous.

The Regs explicitly state that transfer notes can be provided electronically.

From January 2015, a duty is placed on anyone collecting waste paper, metal, plastic or glass must ensure that where these waste streams have been separately collected, they are not mixed with other waste or other material with different properties.

CLP Regulation

Here's a post from Catherine:

1st December this year will see the first registration deadline under REACH for those manufacturers/importers supplying a substance above 1,000 tonnes/year. Perhaps slightly less well publicised but equally important is the coming into force of key provisions of European Regulation (EC) No 1272/2008 on Classification, Labelling and Packaging of Substances and Mixtures, otherwise known as the CLP Regulation. This Regulation is the method by which the EU has adopted the agreement on a Globally Harmonised System (GHS) on the classicisation, labelling and packaging of chemicals. Changes to the system include terminology changes such as ‘hazardous’ replaced by ‘dangerous’, ‘risk phrases’ replaced by ‘hazard codes and statements’, ‘safety phrases’ replaced by ‘precautionary statements’ and ‘warnings’ (irritant, corrosive etc.) replaced by ‘signal words’ (warning, danger etc.). Although the legislation was approved in January 2009, it won’t come fully into force until June 2015, and the transitional period coincides with some of the key REACH deadlines. However, the CLP Regulation is going to have a much wider impact than just REACH as much national legislation is based on the existing CLP system. For example, the classification of hazardous waste is partly based on risk phrases, so will the Hazardous Waste Regulations have to be overhauled? It will be interesting to see how the knock-on effects of the CLP Regulation will be dealt with in the UK. The transitional period will also mean an overlap between the new and old systems, so some downstream users of chemicals will receive data sheets from one supplier using the old system and some from a different supplier using the new system! Interesting times…

Civil Sanctions for the Environment Agency

Here are a few words from Alison about the new powers for the Environment Agency.

The use of civil sanctions by the Environment Agency came into force in September 2010. This adds to the EA's 'toolbox' of powers to fine for and remediate environmental damage. Some would say this is a good thing. It may help to reduce lengthy and costly court battles in some cases where a civil sanction and fine is more appropriate. The key powers include:

- Fixed monetary penalties: up to £300 for a minor non compliance causing little or no environmental harm. An example of this may be paperwork related to waste legislation. It will not result in a criminal record.

- Variable monetary penalty - this is the biggest change. It provides for the EA to fine up to £250,000 and will be set by the EA dependent on each case. Fines will be awarded for more significant damage to the environment but which do not necessarily need to lead to prosecution. An example may be a packaging waste or a water pollution offence.

This may lead to more enforcement and penalties and could have a commercial impact on all organizations that fall under the scrutiny of the EA. Let's hope everyone views it as an even better reason for the prevention of pollution through good procedures and risk management systems.

If you have any queries regarding environmental legislation at your organisation, do not hesitate to contact our consultants.

Refurbishing our tired & leaky old houses

A new post from Alison:

Yvonne and I went on a very interesting training course at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) the other day on Sustainable Refurbishment. It really made us think not just about the implications on the clients that we work with (particularly those that do refurbishment of social housing), but also about the refurbishment of our own houses.

We both live in houses that are at least 100 years old and as such they are pretty energy inefficient however tight we both are with the use of our heating! They are basically like sieves in terms of the heat and carbon emissions that leak from them! There were 3 main things that I took away with me from the course that we thought may be useful to share:

1. the Building Regulations apply to ALL properties undergoing refurbishment - the implications of this are potentially huge, although it became apparent that local authority building control teams do not always have the resources and understanding to police this. That is a real shame - the regulations are changing again next month and the requirements for energy efficiency (i.e. air tightness and use of A-rated equipment) are increasing - it is only through encouragement (e.g. grants and incentives) and policing that we can actually help implement the new requirements which will ultimately reduce real carbon emissions from the significant older housing stock we have in the UK

2. it costs money - refurbishing housing to meet Decent Homes standards costs money. Refurbishing them to Decent Homes standard + getting them to a point where they are energy efficient costs lots more.

3. but the technology is readily available to help improve the energy efficiency of older homes. What is missing are the skills and information to use and know about the new technology. Aerogel, external and internal insulation, photovoltaic panels, phase-changing materials....the list goes on. The new technology is really exciting. But we do not yet have a construction industry that has the knowledge and skills to implement it. This will of course change over time.

Maybe this is a classic case of demand and supply. Until the demand for new technologies is there on a large scale then the supply of them will remain expensive. It may be that the private sector moves quickly on this itself, or it may require Government intervention to help things happen more quickly. Either way it's exciting (if not challenging) times ahead.

Legislation, legislation, legislation - A post by Catherine

The beginning of April was pretty busy in terms of legislation coming into force, so I thought I’d do a bit of a roundup on all the key pieces that will affect most businesses, as well as the odd bit which is a bit more specific!

The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 further extends the scope of environmental permitting to cover discharge consents, groundwater authorisations and radioactive substances authorisations. If you currently have a discharge or authorisation for any of these activities, you don’t have to re-apply, they will automatically become environmental permits. Revisions to waste exemptions, which we blogged about previously here, are also contained within these new Regulations. Check the Environment Agency’s table to ensure you register your new exemptions by the end of the transitional period.

The £8 per annum landfill tax escalator continues to raise the cost per tonne, and from 1st April the standard rate is now £48 per tonne for active waste, with inert waste staying at £2.50 per tonne.

The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme went live on the 1st April. If you have a half-hourly meter and used 6,000 MWh of electricity in 2008, you have between now and the end of September to register here. Last week there was a live question and answer session on the CRC with an expert panel, including representatives from the Environment Agency and IEMA, and you can read the discussions here.

The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 received Royal Assent on 8th April. The Bill was introduced partly as a response to the severe flooding of summer 2007. It places obligations on the Environment Agency to develop and maintain a national flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy. One of the more interesting provisions is the removal of the automatic right for new developments to connect to sewers, which is to encourage the uptake of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDs). You can read the full text of the Act here.

From April 1st, duty rates for biodiesel and bioethanol increased to the same level as conventional petrol and diesel, but the Biodiesel Duty (Biodiesel Produced From Waste Cooking Oil) (Relief) Regulations 2010 means that biodiesel derived from waste cooking oil will continue to benefit from a 20 pence per litre duty until 2013.

With the date now fixed for the general election, it will be interesting in the coming month to see how the main parties play their ‘environmental’ cards, and what hints we’ll get for any future environmental legislation.

Waste exemptions

UPDATE:

Following a detailed examination of the new legislation and a long discussion with the EA today, Catherine was able to confirm that, contrary to what I had written below, if you used to have an exemption 27 you no longer need to register. It now falls under one of the non-waste framework exemptions which do not need to be registered. In effect, with these exemptions, it is taken that you have an automatic exemption.

We mentioned the new waste exemptions a few weeks ago. The Environment Agency has a really useful page about it explaining the details, listing the new exemptions and giving a link to register your exemptions.

The new exemptions come into effect on 6th April 2010. From this date you will be able to register by following the link here.

Full information on these changes including guidance can be found here.

You need to know this - Waste Legislation from Catherine

When Yvonne first mentioned she was going to start an ECUS Environmental Management blog, I thought it was a great idea, although I knew full well it was only a matter of time before she coerced gently persuaded me into writing something. As I’m one of those sad people who finds environmental legislation really interesting, what could be better I thought, than to write about the forthcoming Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations?!

Exemptions are required for waste management activities that have a fairly low environmental impact but still require a certain element of control from the regulator. The activities covered range from simply storing waste on site, to crushing it, to more complex activities such as spreading agricultural waste on land. What most businesses probably don’t realise is that they automatically have a waste exemption under Schedule 3, Part 2 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007. Exemptions in this Part are ‘unregisterable’ and pretty much every business producing waste will automatically fall under the paragraph 52 “temporary storage of waste on the site where it is produced” exemption.

The new Regulations are due to come into force on April so I spent part of my train journey down to Somerset last week getting clued up on them, and was actually pleasantly surprised. The Environment Agency held a series of consultation workshops last year and I went along to one in Birmingham. The delegates were a mixed bag; consultants, environmental managers and operators. The poor Agency representative got a bit of a grilling as the initial consultations suggested a £50 charge per exemption, to be renewed every year. Operators who used mobile crushers on construction sites were also concerned, as the proposed new limits would mean that many of them would require a standard permit for mobile plant rather than an exemption.

So after numerous consultations, it’s interesting to see the actual outcome, which I will summarise in a few succinct bullet points:

• The two tier system of complex and simple exemptions has been removed – activities will either require an exemption or a standard environmental permit;
• Only exemptions relating to refurbishment of WEEE are chargeable, contrary to the initial proposals;
• Exemptions will need to be renewed every three years and will appear on the Agency’s Public Registers;
• The relevant EWC codes are provided for all waste streams covered;
• Exemptions are split into categories:
• U (use of waste) 1-16
• T (treatment of waste) 1-33
• D (disposal of waste) 1-8
• S (storage of waste) 1-3
  
  

It remains to be seen how successful the amendments are once the new Regulations are in force, but my personal view is that they’re a great improvement on the old exemptions. They’re much clearer and more specific as to the type of activity and waste stream. But the most surprising bit is hidden away in the Part 2 unregisterable exemptions. Whereas previously there were limits on the quantities of waste that could be stored, these no longer exist. The only criteria under the new Regulations is that waste cannot be stored for longer than 12 months and it must be stored in a secure place, and this applies to hazardous waste as well. So that means in theory it’s perfectly acceptable for a company to store over 23,000 litres liquid hazardous waste or waste oil without being regulated for it! Which leads us on to the inadequacy of the Oil Storage Regulations, but that’s another story for another day…