FEATURE
DEFRA consultation seeks public views on waste exemption changes
IN January 2018, DEFRA’s policy paper: ‘A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment,’ set out the government’s plans to protect and enhance the natural environment with the central goal to “minimising waste”.
In the same month, DEFRA launched a consultation on proposals to tackle crime and poor performance in the waste sector, while introducing a fi xed penalty for fl y-tipping. The consultation closes on Monday 26 March 2018.
The consultation covers England and Wales comprising of three sections – with A and B of particular interest to waste site operators:
Part A focuses on raising the standard of operator competence across all permitted waste sites, by strengthening the regulators’ assessment and enforcement abilities.
Part B is about reforming the waste exemptions regime, within the waste permitting system.
Part C covers the introduction of a new Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) for household Duty of Care off ences for fl y-tipping.
The consultation will gather views on proposals to enforce more appropriate competence standards.
More than 850 new illegal waste sites were discovered by the EA last year, with an average of two illegal waste sites shut down every day.
DEFRA statistics show that there were nearly one million fl y-tipping incidents in 2016/17, with London (366,087) and the North West (128,193) suff ering the most.
Views are being sought on improving householder awareness of Duty of Care responsibility with potential fi nes for those who fail to take ‘reasonable measures’.
Part A: Operator Competence This section includes a Background and Proposal document for review and then 27 questions, which are mostly Yes/No, with the option to include comments. To raise the standard of operator competence, it is proposed to assess four areas: 1. Past performance – widen the scope of off ences, behaviour and relevant persons that the regulator can take account of when assessing competence.
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2. Management systems – require all permitted waste operators to manage and operate in accordance with a written management system.
3. Technical competence – require all permitted waste operators to demonstrate appropriate technical knowledge of their waste site and provide details of the Technically Competent Manager.
4. Financial provision – require the operator of any permitted site to be fi nancially capable of running their waste business, and provide fi nancial security.
Part B Waste Exemptions As before, there is a background and proposal document for review followed by 54 questions, which are mostly Yes/No - plus an optional comments section. Exemptions have been used to provide light- touch regulation for small-scale, low risk waste management activities. EA visited 589 sites and found 30% were illegal or potentially illegal – with the most common issue being the handling of waste was not allowed by that exemption, or in excess of the quantity allowed. The following 10 exemptions were identifi ed as being of most concern: U1 – use of waste in construction U16 – use of de-polluted end-of-life vehicles for parts T4 – preparatory treatments (baling, sorting, shredding, etc) T6 – treatment of waste wood T8 – mechanical treatment of end of life tyres T9 – recovery of scrap metal T12 – manual treatment of waste D7 – burning waste in the open S1 – storage of waste in secure containers S2 – storage of waste in a secure place The consultation seeks views on:
- Prohibiting the use of waste exemption in specifi ed circumstances
- Making changes to the 10 waste exemptions identifi ed as being associated with the greatest levels of non-compliance and illegality
- Requiring additional information to support eff ective regulation of the regime
- Improving the process to register or continue an exemption
Environment Minister, Thérèse Coff ey, said: “We must all take responsibility for our waste to make sure it does not end up in the hands of criminals who will wilfully dump it.”
Therefore, it’s EXTREMELY important that you share your views by 26 March 2018.
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