WEEE Regulations amended

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (Amendment) Regulations 2009 came into force on 1 January 2010. They amend the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2006 and aim to streamline the WEEE regime by improving the producer compliance scheme (PCS) approval process and simplifying the data reporting requirements and the evidence system.
The new regulations allow approved authorised treatment facilities and exporters to issue evidence notes on receipt of separately collected WEEE, rather than after it has been treated or exported. The regulations remove the need for PCSs to apply for approval every three compliance periods (although they will be required to submit ‘rolling’ three-year operational plans annually). The criteria for approval of treatment facilities and exporters have been revised, to include a requirement that the facility is able to achieve the minimum standards of recycling and recovery demanded by the WEEE Directive.

Revised waste exemptions finalised

On 6 April 2010, the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 2009 will come into force revising the waste management exemptions from the environmental permitting regime in England and Wales.
Defra, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Welsh Assembly Government have been reviewing the waste exemption regime since 2007. The aim of the new regulations is to introduce a more risk-based and proportionate approach to the regulation of waste recovery and disposal by increasing the use of exemptions for lower-risk waste operations while restricting the availability of exemptions for higher-risk waste operations.
Businesses carrying out exempt waste activities will have to re-register their exemptions on or after 6 April 2010. If their activity is no longer exempt, they will need to apply for an environmental permit.
For exempt activities already registered as of 5 April 2010, the deadline for applying for a new permit will depend upon the type of activity carried out, with the requirement being introduced in three phases on
1 October 2011, 1 October 2012 and 1 October 2013. The deadline relates to the date for making an application for a permit, avoiding the risk of non-compliance caused by delays in issuing permits. Importantly, the phased deadlines only apply to those exempt operations that have been registered prior to 5 April 2010, therefore operators will need to be mindful of this.
Simple exemptions will no longer be registered for life and operators will be required to renew their registrations with the EA every three years. The regulations also provide for the exemptions to be reviewed every three years, so operators will need to monitor and prepare for any future changes.
Some higher-risk activities that are currently exempt will instead be regulated by standard permits. For operators whose activities are no longer exempt, falling within the scope of the rules making up the standard permits will help to avoid the costs and complications of obtaining a bespoke environmental permit.
The regulations will be incorporated into the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010, which will come into effect on the same day and introduce the second phase of the government’s Environmental Permitting Programme (EPP2). EPP2 aims to extend the programme to integrate more permitting regimes, including water discharge consenting, groundwater authorisation and radioactive substances regulation.

Defra consults on draft guidance on the legal definition of waste

Defra has launched a consultation seeking views on draft guidance that aims to provide organisations with practical advice on how to decide whether substances should be classified as waste. The draft guidance outlines how legislation such as the EU Waste Framework Directive and rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) have developed the legal definition of waste, and how the definition now applies to the classification of substances by organisations. It focuses on cases where the decision is more difficult, such as where the waste has a value, or where the substance has been recycled or recovered.
The legislation governing waste management in the UK adopts an EU-wide definition of waste, the interpretation of which has been the subject of a substantial body of case law of the ECJ. The consultation invites organisations to comment on a series of questions such as how well the draft guidance summarises the case law and identifies the principles that the ECJ has established.