Waste Legislation
There are two things you need to know, before you begin, because they apply to every business:
1. What counts as waste?
Legal Definitions of Waste - An introduction to the different categories of waste, as defined in UK and EU legislation.
2. Your Duty of Care
Duty of Care Regulations - Ensuring that business and industry waste is dealt with in a responsible manner.
You may also be interested in the wider context: The Landfill Directive has been transposed into English regulations governing the disposal of waste at landfill sites, including initiatives to reduce biodegradable materials entering landfill and preventing the mixture of hazardous, inert and non-hazardous wastes in landfills.
There is also a range of legislation on particular types of waste:
There are general regulations that cover all hazardous waste, plus some legislation that is specific to particular types:
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE)
And you will need to be aware of the regulations on:
Waste arising from any construction work on your premises
Incinerating waste
The Waste Incineration Directive (WID) aims to prevent or limit the negative effects of waste incineration on the environment. If you burn solid or liquid waste then WID is likely to apply to you, although there are exemptions for units incinerating smaller quantities and those burning certain types of waste. But even if you are exempt from the WID, which is a European Directive, you will still require an environmental permit for most waste burning activities under English legislation.
The Environmental Permitting Regulations (EPR) came into force on 6 April 2008 and are implemented by the Environment Agency or, in certain cases, the Local Authority. Your permit will list the types and quantities of waste that you are allowed to burn. It will also include operating conditions, emission limits and monitoring requirements with which you must comply. Like the WID, these regulations allow some specific exemptions:
Paragraph 5 exemption : You can use waste to generate heat or power in an appliance or appliances that have a net rated thermal input of less than 0.4 megawatts (400kW). If two or more appliances are used together, the total thermal input of the appliances combined must still be below 0.4 megawatts to qualify for the exemption.
Paragraph 29 exemption : You can burn waste generated by yourself in an exempt incinerator. The requirements of the Waste Incineration Directive (WID) restrict the waste types you can burn without the need for an environmental permit as a Waste Incineration or Co-incineration installation. For example, you could burn wood waste that has not been treated with wood preservatives or coatings containing halogenated organic compounds or heavy metals. (Please note most construction and demolition wood is likely to have been treated with paints etc that contain organic compounds or heavy metals).
Paragraph 30 exemption : You can burn in the open, up to ten tonnes per day of plant tissue waste, provided the wastes are your own.
NOTE: You must not burn waste in the open unless you have registered an exemption. Even with an exemption, it is an offence to burn waste material that produces black smoke when burnt.
Netregs have further information on environmental permits and on how to apply for a permit .
Transporting waste
Commercial, industrial and household wastes (including hazardous/special wastes) are classified as 'controlled waste'. The Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991 impose a duty of care on anyone who produces, keeps, carries, imports, treats or disposes of controlled waste to ensure there is no unauthorised or harmful depositing, treatment or disposal of the waste.
Following the 1989 Control of Pollution Act, the Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991 introduced a registration system for carriers of controlled waste and the Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 covers registration of professional collectors and transporters of waste and of brokers.
Only appropriately authorised carriers can transport waste other than their own. In addition, if you transport building or demolition waste off your own premises, you must register as a carrier of waste.
Certain types of waste require specifically-designed storage/packaging and/or vehicles for their transport, to avoid leakage of substances which are hazardous to the environment or human health - see our Hazardous waste and Animal by-products legislation pages.
You can locate a waste carrier from the Environment Agency's register, here .
If you want to register as a waste carrier, click here
Construction waste
The Site Waste Management Plans Regulations 2008 came into force in April 2008, and placed a requirement on anyone commissioning building work costing £300,000 or more (excluding VAT) to have a site waste management plan (SWMP) in place before the work begins. Because a SWMP must be in place before the work begins on a qualifying project, it may be necessary to estimate the project cost. You can get an estimated average price calculation for different building types using data available in BCIS online or by purchasing the BCIS Quarterly Review of Building Prices.
The aim of a SWMP is to allow the designer to consider ways that waste can be reduced and site-gained materials can be reused or recycled as part of the project. Identifying waste materials at an early stage that can not be reused on that project will make it easier to find other alternative uses for them.
A SWMP is not just a tick-box exercise, to be produced and then shelved. It must be updated throughout the course of the project to ensure that it accurately reflects the progress of the project. At the end of the project, you must review the plan and record the reasons for any differences between the plan and what actually happened.
For any qualifying project, it is the responsibility of the client to:
• produce the initial SWMP before construction work begins
• appoint the principal contractor
• pass the SWMP to the principal contractor.
It is the responsibility of the principal contractor to:
• obtain relevant information from sub-contractors
• keep the SWMP on site during the project
• ensure that other contractors know where the SWMP is kept
• allow other contractors and the client access to the SWMP during the project
• keep the SWMP for two years after the completion of the project.
The level of detail that a SWMP must contain depends on the estimated build cost.
For projects estimated at between £300,000 and £500,000 (excluding VAT) the SWMP should contain details of the:
• types of waste removed from the site
• identity of the person who removed the waste
• site that the waste is taken to.
For projects estimated at over £500,000 (excluding VAT) the SWMP should contain details of the:
• types of waste removed from the site
• identity of the person who removed the waste and their waste carrier registration number
• a description of the waste
• site that the waste was taken to
• environmental permit or exemption held by the site where the material is taken.
Netregs has produced a simple guide to Site Waste Management Plans
