Legislation
If you have any queries regarding current legislation within the recycling and waste management sector you can call our team of advisors on 0800 7 831 831 who will be happy to help...
Environmental Protection Act
The Environmental Protection Act (EPA) makes provision for the control of pollution from certain industrial and other processes. The EPA (amended 1995) introduced a new waste licensing system, which was further enhanced in the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994.
The Act deals with issues relating to:
- Waste on land, defining all aspects of waste management and places a duty on local authorities to collect waste.
- The ways in which a Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) may contract out the disposal to a private company.
Organisations will have to apply for Waste Management Licenses at its sites to cover the operation and process being used to recover and recycle waste. These licenses are issued and policed by the Environment Agency.
For more information visit the Environment Agency
Producer Responsibility
The Producer Responsibility Regulations, known as the Packaging Waste Regulations, set targets for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste. These targets have had a large effect on recycling within the UK.
The overall aim of the legislation is to increase the levels of recovery and recycling of packaging waste. Depending on the nature of an organisations business and the weight of packaging they handle, companies are required to meet specific recovery and recycling targets.
For more information vist Defra
The Waste Incineration Regulations (for England & Wales) 2002
The Waste Incineration Regulations introduced stringent operating conditions and set minimum technical requirements for incinerators and co-incinerators, including large plant, such as municipal waste incinerators and cement kilns, and other smaller plant like clinical waste incinerators.
The objective is to prevent or limit negative effects on the environment and the resulting risks to human health from the incineration and co-incineration of waste.
This legislation also covers gasification and pyrolysis plants. The equipment to be used by Severnside is already compliant with these regulations in the form of the EU Waste Incineration Directive within other European states.
Climate Change Levy 2001
The Climate Change Levy (CCL) Regulations form part of the Governments strategy on meeting the Kyoto Agreement targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Industry sectors considered as heavy energy users are charged a levy on every kWh of electricity of 0.456p. However, this levy can be offset by, amongst other things, purchasing electricity that has been generated by a renewable source.
Rates of the levy are:
- 0.159/kWh for gas
- 1.242p/kg for coal
- 1.018/kg for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)
- 0.456p/kWh for electricity
Gasification and pyrolysis are classified as renewable sources of energy generation. To prove that the energy is from a renewable source the electricity must be sold with an accompanying Levy Exemption Certificate (LEC).
For more information on the CCL visit the Carbon Trust
Animal By-Products Regulations 2005
The Animal By-Products Regulations prohibit the landfill disposal of uncooked meat, fish and eggs. Uncooked meat, fish and eggs from retail outlets must be treated at an approved processing plant such as:
-Rendering plants.
-Incinerator (includes gasification and pyrolysis).
-Alkaline hydrolysis plant.
-Technical plant.
-Composting or Biogas plant.
-Pet food plant.
By their nature these types of plants are few and far between giving the likes of supermarkets with unsold product a huge issue over segregation of these animal by-products as well as large cost implications for the separate collection and disposal of this waste. Rendering plants are the most common form of disposal for material from supermarkets and the cost associated with this form of disposal ranges from £125 to £250 per tonne.
For more information on Animal By-Product regulations visit Defra
Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment WEEE 2002
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive is designed to encourage and regulate the collection, reuse, recycling and recovery of waste electrical and electronic equipment, for which it sets targets.
The Directive has yet to be implemented into UK Legislation; mainly due to delays in how the targets will be monitored and the limits being set on collectors and recyclers.
Electrical goods covered by the Directive include:-
-Large and small household appliances.
-IT and communication equipment.
-Consumer entertainment equipment (such as TVs, videos & hi-fis).
-Lighting.
-Electrical and electronic toys.
-Tools.
-Leisure and sports equipment.
-Medical devices (with some exceptions).
-Monitoring and control equipment.
-Automatic dispensers.
Recovery and recycling targets are set according to product category and range from 50%-80%. Targets are to be reached forty-six months after Regulations come into force.
For more information visit NetRegs
Landfill Directive 1999
The Landfill Directive aims to prevent, or at least reduce as much as possible, the negative effects of landfill. Therefore these regulations will impact in a major way on the UK waste industry.
The directive requires;
· Operators demonstrate that both themselves and their staff are technically competent
· An adherence to higher engineering standards
· The diversion of biodegradable waste from landfill
· The banning of certain hazardous waste, including liquids, from landfill sites
· The pre-treatment of waste prior to land filling.
It is the Environment Agency that has the statutory responsibility for the regulation of landfill site and therefore has the primary responsibility for implementing the Landfill Directive.
The Landfill Regulations 2002
The Landfill Regulations have also enacted the complete banning of certain waste types in accordance with the EU Directive. The waste types banned are:
-Waste which is corrosive, oxidising, highly flammable or explosive.
-Liquid hazardous waste, infectious hospital and other clinical wastes.
-Whole used tyres (from 2003).
-Shredded tyres (from 16th July 2006).
Landfill
Landfill is a disposal option that is increasingly becoming more costly than recycling. From April 2009 the standard landfill tax rate is £40 per tonne, which is set to continue to increase by £8 per tonne per year at least up until 2010/11.