The Environment Agency (EA) has launched end of waste (EoW) submission form guidance to help those managing waste to determine when it can be classified as a product, and thus cease to be bound by waste management laws.

The ‘Converting waste into products:End of waste submission form guidance’ has been released by the EA to help ‘provide a view’ on whether waste can be classified as a product.

Drawing on Europe’s Waste Framework Directive and ‘European, English and Welsh case law on the definition of waste’, the guidance outlines that for waste to qualify for end of waste status, producers must ensure that:

• waste is converted into a ‘distinct and marketable product’;
• the waste-derived product can be used in exactly the same way as a non-waste material; and
• the waste-derived product must be ‘stored and used with a “no worse” environmental effect when compared to the non waste material it is intended to replace’.

Guidance details

To help waste producers, the EA has published guidance outlining what steps need to be taken to achieve EoW.

These include:

• describing what makes the waste-derived product distinct from its previous waste format, including the processes the waste undergoes prior to being converted into a non-waste material (such as any pre-treatment or treatment processes);
• identifying the intended market for the waste-derived product (and evidencing that this market is secure, such as by ‘providing evidence’ of prospective purchasers);
• comparing the waste-derived product against an equivalent non-waste comparator to outline that it can be used in exactly the same way, and what the benefits are of producing it from waste;
• assuring the EA, through an appendix of quantified measurements, that there are no properties in the waste-derived product (including trace components or contaminants) that may lead to a ‘worse environmental impact than when using an equivalent non-waste product’.

EoW submissions for waste-derived products for land applications must also include:

• what the fertiliser content and the properties of the material are;
• the application rates of the waste-derived product to the land;
• description of the land types expected to receive the product;
• how the product will improve structure or other properties of soils it is to be applied to (if it is being produced as a soil conditioner);
• what environmental risks have been identified;
• how these risks have been assessed and what the outcomes are (e.g. surface or groundwater pollution, odour, dust, etc).

Those submitting applications for waste-derived products for fuel applications must include:

• direct comparisons of the calorific values (CV) of the waste-derived fuel product and a non-waste product equivalent (the EA adds that a ‘blend of waste-derived fuel and non waste fuel is not an appropriate comparator’);
• direct comparisons of the amount of pollutant(s) produced per unit of energy from both the waste-derived product and the fuel comparator;
• whether the fuel may be used at specific site(s), or burned anywhere; and
• if, and how, the abatement techniques at the receiving facility need to be changed to accept the waste-derived fuel product.

The EA warns that if wastes are processed with other materials which ‘merely involve mixing, blending or dilution of wastes’, it would be ‘unlikely’ to consider the that a ‘distinct final product’ has been made, but would be ‘most likely to view the resultant material as a new waste’.

Read ‘Converting waste into products:End of waste submission form guidance’.