Legislation
Pre-Treatment
Requirements
As of 30
October 2007 changes in the Landfill Regulations means that non-hazardous waste
must be pre-treated before it can be landfilled. This means a
reduction in weight/volume by removing a proportion of the waste for recycling,
through a MRF and/or a separate recycling collection.
Control of Asbestos
Regulations 2006
On
13 November 2006 the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2006 came into force.
These Regulations bring together the three previous sets of Regulations
covering the prohibition of asbestos, the control of asbestos at work and
asbestos licensing.
It is a requirement that
all asbestos must be packed in UN approved sacks with CDG and asbestos warning
signs visible. All asbestos must be double bagged, the standard practice is to
use a red inner bag with asbestos warnings and an outer bag with the CDG sign.
Hazardous
/ Special Waste Regulations
On 16 July
2005 the Hazardous Waste (England
and Wales)
Regulations and the List of Wastes (England)
Regulations came into force replacing the Special Waste Regulations. The term
special waste was obsolete in England
and Wales
from July 2005 when the new hazardous waste regime replaces the special waste
regime. Hazardous wastes are the most dangerous wastes.
Producer Responsibility
Producer
responsibility is aimed at ensuring that businesses who place products on the
market take responsibility for those products once they have reached the end of
their life.
A producer
responsibility policy underlies the approach taken in implementing the EC
Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste in the UK
and is the approach taken in both the EC Directive on Waste Electrical and
Electronic Equipment (WEEE) and End of Life Vehicles (ELV) Directives. All
these producer responsibility directives, as well as the forthcoming directive
on Batteries and Accumulators were identified in the European Union\\\'s Fifth
Environment Action Programme as priority waste streams because of
growing concern about their impact on the environment. In these, Directives
responsibility is clearly placed on producers to bear the costs of collection,
sorting or treatment and recycling or recovery.
EU Landfill
Directive
The Landfill
Directive will help push waste up the hierarchy through waste minimisation and
increased levels of recycling and recovery. The Directive of the overall aim
is:
to prevent or reduce as far as possible negative effects on the
environment, in particular the pollution of surface water, groundwater, soil
and air, and on the global environment, including the greenhouse effect, as
well as any resulting risk to human health, from the landfilling of waste,
during the whole life-cycle of the landfill.
For further
information please visit Defra,
Environment
Agency and/or the HSE.
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