How do I find out if my facility is a Waste Operation?
The law states that waste is any substance or object that has been discarded, is required to be discarded or is intended to be discarded.
The word ‘discarded’ has a broad meaning and includes those things that are going to be recycled or recovered. In fact you can only recycle something that is waste.
If you are handling materials that have been or are to be discarded, you should assume you are dealing with waste.
Companies that remediate or clean up contaminated land are amongst those affected. There are some exceptions to this but even if you are doing something useful with it, or it is valuable, you could still be handling waste.
You can access the Government Guidance on Waste Framework Directive via the link below:
If you handle waste, but your activity does not match any of the installation definitions, then the activity may be a waste operation, unless it is either:
- an excluded waste operation under Paragraph 4 of Part 1 of the Regulations. Some waste operations are excluded from Environmental Permitting as they are regulated under other regimes (e.g. consent for liquid discharge under the Water Resources Act).
- an exempt waste operation under Paragraph 5 of Part 1 of the Regulations
Examples of waste operations regulated under Environmental Permitting include waste transfer, metal recycling and composting.
Some waste operations are exempt from the need to have an Environmental Permit, but they do need to be registered. Most exemptions are registered by the Environment Agency, and a small number do not need to be registered at all.
Contact Abricon for free initial advice on these and other environmental permitting issues.
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