Post on 17-Dec-2015
WASTE MANAGEMENT IWASTE HIERARCHY
EUROPEAN UNION FRAMEWORK WASTE DIRECTIVE
DEFINITION OF WASTE + ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
1
Environmental Law
Waste Management I2
European Union Waste Framework Directive 2008, provides legislative framework for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste
Definition of WasteRequires MSs to take the necessary measures
to ensure waste is recovered or disposed of without endangering human health or causing harm to the environment
Permitting, Registration and Inspection Requirements
Waste Management I3
Requires MSs to take appropriate measures to encourage:
Firstly, the prevention or reduction of waste production and its harmfulness;
Secondly, the recovery of waste by means of recycling, re-use or reclamation or any other process in order to extract secondary raw materials, or use waste as a source of energy
Waste Hierarchy4
Article 4 of the revised EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC sets out five steps for dealing with waste, ranked according to environmental impact
The Waste Hierarchy: (descending order)Prevention /Re-UsePreparing for Re-UseRecyclingOther RecoveryDisposal
Waste Hierarchy5
Transposed into UK law Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011Definitions of each stage: Article 3 Directive
2008/98/ECNon-Exhaustive lists of disposal and recovery
operations: Annexes I and II DirectivePrevention: measures taken before a
substance, material or product becomes waste that reduce quantity of waste (including re-use)
Waste Hierarchy6
Preparing for Re-Use: Checking, cleaning or repairing recovery operations which prepare products that have become waste so that they can be re-used without any other pre-processing
Recycling: Recovery operations re-processing waste materials into products, materials, substances for the original or other purposes. Includes reprocessing of organic materials. Does not include energy recovery
Recovery: Any operation, the principal result of which is waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other materials which would otherwise have been used, or waste being prepared to fulfil that function
Waste Hierarchy7
Disposal: Any operation which is not recovery even where the operation has a secondary consequence the reclamation of substances or energy (eg Landfill / Incineration) Annex I sets out non-exhaustive list of disposal operations.
Waste Management Policy directed to all those concerned with waste and not just its final disposal.
Waste Framework Directive 2008 transposed into UK law in Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011
Definition of Waste8
S75(4) Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990:‘Controlled waste’ means household, industrial and commercial waste or any such waste
S75(2) EPA 1990 ‘Waste’ means anything that is waste within meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC[Amended by Schedule 4, Part 1 Sect. 8(a) The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011]
Article 3(1) Dir. 2008/98 ‘Waste’ means any substance or object which the holder discards or intends or is required to discard
Definition of Waste9
In determining whether waste has been discarded it is a factor of importance if it has been consigned for waste recovery or waste disposal. If it has it constitutes waste.
Annex I to EU Directive lists Disposal operationsList of Recovery operations in Annex 2Dividing line between use of raw materials in a
normal industrial cycle (eg use of / re-use of fuel) [non-waste?] and consignment of waste to a recovery operation is fine [waste]. When does waste cease to be waste?
Decided whether waste and thus regulated - on a case by case basis