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