The first reporting period of the Materials Facility (MF) Regulations, which requires some waste facility operators to sample incoming and outgoing streams, has begun today (1 October).

First laid in Parliament in February, the MF Regulations (formerly known as the Materials Recovery Regulations, and the MRF Code of Practice), form part of The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 and aim to garner 'robust' data on MF inputs and outputs in the hopes of improving the UK’s recyclate quality.

According to Resource Minister Dan Rogerson, the MF Regulations have been one of the coalition government’s greatest waste achievements.

MF Regulation details

The law requires facilities processing more than 1,000 tonnes of mixed waste per annum (with the ‘largest proportion’ of which being sorted into one or several of the target materials of glass, metal, paper/cardboard, and plastic) to test the composition of samples of the material put into the sorting process, and the useable output, and report them to the Environment Agency (for MRFs in England) or Natural Resources Wales (for MRFs in Wales).

It does not apply to the following:

• 'dirty' MRFs treating residual wastes;
• MRFs handling only one of the target waste types (glass, metal, paper and plastic);
• sites that are not specifically equipped for sorting (e.g. civic amenity sites);
• refuse-derived fuel plants; or
• sites sorting dry recyclate from construction and demolition waste.

However, if any of these facilities fulfil the 'largest proportion' criteria, they may fall under the regulations, and will need to notify the Environment Agency (EA).

Sampling guidance

From today (1 October), all qualifying MFs will need to sample their incoming and outgoing material.

The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) launched sampling and testing guidance for MF operators in April, to help them prepare for and comply with the requirements of the new law.

Developed by a steering group comprising the environment departments from each of the UK nations – as well as several industry stakeholders and representatives, including Viridor, SITA UK, the Resource Association and Resource Futures – WRAP’s ‘non-statutory, good practice guidance’ was produced to ‘ensure that the sampling of materials and testing of composition carried out under the regulations is undertaken by MFs in England and Wales to a high and consistent minimum standard using recognised and accepted procedures’.

Complementing and expanding on summary guidance released by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs earlier this year, the guidance not only outlines how operators should be collecting samples, but also provides information on:

• the equipment needed to take samples;
• best/good practice for sampling and testing;
• details on how to calculate the relevant statistics (such as deviation) and data input templates;
• suggestions for staff training, including health and safety; and
• suggestions for additional sampling ‘that can be undertaken to help improve the management and performance of a facility’.

WRAP identifies that both incoming and outgoing mixed waste material must be sampled to identify ‘target material’, ‘non-recyclable material’ and ‘non-target material’.

It suggests that although sampling of the residual waste fraction, e.g. MRF residues, is not required under the regulations, it is ‘considered good practice’ as it allows operators to:

• identify the types and quantity of target materials that are being lost during processing (and thus ‘improve operational practice and identify shifts where the equipment is being operated incorrectly and where additional training may be required’);
• identify common types of non-target and non-recyclable material and pass this information back to suppliers for use in communication campaigns;
• perform ‘mass balance calculations’ that might be used for business planning purposes; and
• assess compliance with the legal duty to apply the waste hierarchy as a priority order, by not sending material on to disposal or energy recovery if it can be recycled.

Records must be submitted electronically to the relevant regulator by the following dates:

• 31 January 2015 for the first reporting period (1 October 2014 to 31 December 2014), and for all yearly reports on the same period thereafter;
• 30 April for yearly reports on the period running 1 January to 31 March;
• 31 July for yearly reports on the period 1 April to 30 June; and
• 31 October for yearly reports on the period 1 July to 30 September.

All MRFs falling under the regulations will have inspections ‘at least twice a year’ (one of which will be 'unannounced') to review the way samples and reporting are undertaken. The costs of these inspections have not been finalised, but it has previously been proposed that operators pay a charge of £2,240 a year.

Find out more about the MF Regulations or the sampling guidance.