Environment Law Update: Waste 3

United Kingdom

Landfill consultation

A consultation paper seeking views in England and Wales on the implementation of the Landfill Directive (1999/31/EC) has been published. The Directive contains some significant changes to current practices employed in the operation, monitoring and after-care of landfill sites. Each individual landfill site will have to be classified as either hazardous, non-hazardous or inert depending on the waste it accepts. This will end co-disposing of hazardous and non-hazardous waste in the same landfill. In addition, all waste will be required to undergo physical, thermal, chemical or biological treatment in order to reduce its volume or hazardous nature, or to aid recovery. The Directive also bans the landfill of certain types of waste, including liquid wastes, tyres and certain hazardous wastes. The main impact of these bans will be on waste producers who will have to find alternative disposal routes for these wastes. Responses to the paper will aid the development of new regulations under the Pollution Prevention and Control Act to implement the Landfill Directive. There will be further consultation on the draft regulations in 2001.
(DETR, October 2000)

Packaging waste

The targets for recovery and recycling to fulfil the UK's obligations for 2001 under the EC Directive on Packaging and Waste (94/62/EC) have been announced. The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging and Waste) Regulations (SI 1997 No 648) transposed some elements of this Directive, including targets for recovery and recycling of packaging waste for 2001. The new targets are included in the Draft Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Regulations 2000. Targets of 56 percent for recovery and 18 percent for material-specific recycling for each type of packaging waste (i.e. paper, steel, plastic etc.) have replaced the 52 percent for recovery and 16 percent for material-specific recycling originally prescribed in 1997. This is due to the higher than expected growth in the amount of packaging waste. As expected, it was also announced that a flat registration fee of GBP460 for each compliance scheme member, regardless of the size of the scheme, would replace the current sliding scale fee.
(SO, November 2000)

Packaging waste reprocessors

After a Judicial Review of a decision by the EA not to accredit Mayer Parry Recycling Limited as a packaging waste reprocessor was referred to the European Court of Justice, it has been decided there will be no change either to the operation of waste management controls or to the current accreditation policy until the European Court has reached a judgment. The Judicial Review follows declarations made about scrap metal and the definition of waste under the Waste Framework Directive (75/442/EEC) in the High Court in 1998. It could now take 18-24 months for the European Court ruling.
(DETR/EA Press Notice September 2000)

Household waste targets

The Government has launched the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) following the publication of its waste strategy in May 2000. This set statutory targets for local councils to double recycling of household waste to 17 percent by 2003, triple it to 25 percent by 2005 and to recycle 33 percent by 2015. The three year, GBP30 million WRAP initiative intends to tackle the barriers to increased recycling by promoting new markets and uses for recycled materials. England and Wales currently produce 27 million tonnes of household waste each year and without action the UK's local councils could be handling 50 million tonnes of household waste a year by 2020. WRAP's chairman explained that he will be boosting recycling by working with stakeholders including representatives of manufacturers, retailers, local government, community groups and the waste management industry. He also added that Company Directors should know the volume of waste their business is producing, how much of it is being recycled and what is happening to the rest.
(The Financial Times, 16 November 2000)

Contaminated land

The Government has published its Urban White Paper "Our Towns and Cities: The Future Delivering an Urban Renaissance". A key element of the White Paper is a voluntary scheme to encourage owners of brownfield sites to compile sellers' packs. These Land Condition Records (LCRs) would be compiled by independent accredited organisations which would be administered by a secretariat provided by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. LCRs would contain information in a log book on the history of use, contamination and planning status of a site, which could be easily transferred to future owners. It is hoped that by giving developers comprehensive information about the costs of cleaning up contaminated land from the outset, the scheme will speed up transactions.
(DETR, November 2000)

Contaminated land – Wales

The National Assembly has published its draft Contaminated Land (Wales) Regulations and accompanying guidance on the new contaminated land regime. The regime came into force in England in April 2000 and in Scotland in July 2000. Consultation on the draft Regulations and statutory guidance for Wales will last until 16 February 2001, with the regulations expected to come into force in spring 2001.
(National Assembly for Wales, November 2000)

Radioactive discharges

The DETR has issued a consultation paper seeking comments on draft Guidance on the granting of authorisations to discharge liquid and gaseous radioactive materials into the environment. It comprises two parts - the formal statutory guidance to the EA and an accompanying explanatory document setting out the formal guidance and the principles that underpin it.
(DETR, November 2000)

Waste survey

A detailed assessment of the waste produced in individual regions has been published by the EA. The Strategic Waste Management Assessment (SWMA) is a series of ten regional reports looking at waste and disposal across England and Wales. Each report contains detailed results from the Agency's first National Waste Production Survey. It includes an analysis of hazardous waste production and management, information on specific waste streams, details of all licensed waste management facilities and an assessment of the impact of the Landfill Directive. Overall, the SWMAs show that just over half of waste produced is sent to landfill, 30 percent of industrial and commercial waste is recycled, 45 percent of construction and demolition waste is recycled and there is, on average, six years' licensed capacity left at sites taking biodegradable waste.
(EA, December 2000)

European Union

Incineration

A Directive on the incineration of waste (2000/76/EC), published in the Official Journal, will introduce stricter controls on burning hazardous and non-hazardous waste. It establishes minimum emission limit values for a number of pollutants, including dioxins, furans and heavy metals, to air soil and water as the result of incineration and co-incineration of waste. The Directive will apply to new plants from 28 December 2002 and to existing plants from 28 December 2005.
(OJ L332, 28 December 2000)

End-of-life vehicles

The Directive on end-of-life vehicles (2000/53/EC) has been published in the Official Journal. It aims to reduce waste from end-of-life vehicles by requiring member states to promote systems for their collection and treatment and by imposing recovery targets. The Directive has to be implemented by member states before April 2002.
(OJ L 269, 21 October 2000)

The European Ferrous Recovery and Recycling Federation (EFR) has created a European Shredder group to represent operators in implementing the end-of-life vehicles directive. The group will be involved in collecting data on operating costs, legislation and new technology and will also cover any kind of material for shredders and separation plants.
(Reuters World Environment News, December 21, 2000)