News Article

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08/04/2005

Fly tipping-figures revealed

New figures show that there are 75,000 incidents of fly tipping per month, costing local authorities almost ?100 per incident to clean up. The same figures revealed that illegal dumping takes place every 75 seconds somewhere in England.

The information comes from Flycapture a national fly-tipping database set up by Defra, the Environment Agency and the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2004. The Environment Minister Elliot Morley commented that the information gathered from the database is helping authorities to identify the nature of the waste, the places that wastes are illegally dumped and the costs of the cleaning up operations. This, according to the minister, will enable authorities to allocate their resources more effectively and target fly-tippers both within and between counties.

Barbara Young the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency stated that Flycapture is not just a database for keeping records, but an important enforcement tool which has already produced results. Last year two trucks responsible for at least 27 separate incidents of fly-tipping costing council tax payers thousands of pounds, were confiscated and crushed.

The Parliament is currently debating The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Bill which will impose stiffer penalties and will extend the powers of local authorities and the Environment Agency to deal with offenders.

Combining the new powers that the bill will set out and the analysis of the information that Flycapture collects, action will be taken to deter offenders and prevent fly-tipping.

08/04/2005

Change in licensing regime boost for brownfield redevelopment

Changes that will allow the easier redevelopment of brownfield land in England and Wales, were announced on the 26^th of March by the Environment Agency.

The changes are planned to take effect in October and aim to make brownfield redevelopment easier thus saving industry money and time without compromising environmental protection. The proposals were a product of collaboration between the Environment Agency, DEFRA and the Cabinet Office as part of the Remediation Licensing Task Force and introduce changes in mobile plant licensing.

Mobile equipment is used by contractors to treat contaminated land on-site before redevelopment and enables them to re-use the soil. These plants require license from the Environment Agency to operate. The re-use of the treated soil is the preferred option because the introduction of the Landfill Directive in July has added significant costs in the disposal of hazardous soil into landfill.

Currently, re-developers working at two different sites at the same time require two different mobile plant licenses. With the new rules only one license will be needed irrespective of the number of sites being redeveloped.

Liz Parkes, Environment Agency?s Head of Waste Regulation said that increasing housing demand makes brownfield redevelopment a necessity. She added that the new rules will make things easier for the construction industry and will encourage them to treat and re-use contaminated soil rather than sending it to landfill. This will benefit the environment but will also save the industry money.

The director of the Environmental Industries Commission Merlin Hyman welcomed the new changes and characterised them as ?very constructive and positive?. He said that these changes will reduce the barriers to cleaning up contaminated land for redevelopment and will encourage the use of sustainable 'on-site' treatment methods. He also added that the new rules are an important step towards a streamlined approach to licensing land remediation.

30/03/2005

New Waste Legislation!

A number of new regulations introduce changes in the way that wastes are being classified and treated, leading to the reduction in the amount of waste being landfilled.

These new regulations are summarised as follows: -

The Hazardous Waste Regulations.
The Landfill ( England and Wales) Regulations 2005 (currently under consultation).
The Landfill ( England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations (W.E.E.E)

The Hazardous Waste Directive aims to provide a precise and uniform definition of ?hazardous waste? to apply across the European Union, to reduce confusion and streamline the current systems. The Hazardous Waste Regulations, which will transpose the Hazardous Waste Directive into U.K. law, will come into force in two stages: some sections on the 1 st of April 2005 and the bulk of them on the 16 July 2005. The legislation will implement the revised European Waste Catalogue and will set threshold values for hazardous waste.

The Landfill ( England and Wales) Regulations 2005 (currently under consultation) and The Landfill ( England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004, will have as a main purpose the correct characterisation of the waste . This means that waste producers or persons responsible for management of the waste should produce this information to ensure that wastes can be safely disposed of in a landfill .
? Furthermore, new criteria for?the acceptance of specific types of waste at landfills will be introduced under these regulations (Waste Acceptance Criteria). These criteria will be in the form of limit values and testing methods (e.g. limit values for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) at landfills for inert waste ).

The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive has to be transposed into UK law by July 2005. The Directive aims to reduce the waste arising from electrical and electronic equipment; and improve the environmental performance of all those involved in the life cycle of electrical and electronic products. Under the directive the producer (manufacturer or importer) of the goods will be responsible for financing end-of-life recycling recovery and treatment costs. Private households must be able to return WEEE without charge. This comes into effect on 13th of August 2005 and will affect products placed on the market after this date.

27/04/2005

Concerns about ?waste? fuel ash

The Association of Electricity Producers (AEP) raised concerns about the Environment Agency?s decision to classify pulverised fuel ash as a waste. The decision was taken last November at a forum between officials and industry which was set up to discuss the implementation of the IPPC regime.

Pulverised fuel ash from power stations is currently being used in large quantities in the construction industry. The AEP warned that there could be a reduction in the use of pulverised fuel ash, if the material remains classified as waste.

During the meeting the Agency?s head of process industry regulation Martin Bigg, stated that the regulator was very keen to solve the issue. Since then, however, the

Environment Agency has repeated its view that PFA is classified as waste, therefore companies need waste management licence to use it.

The energy policy advisor Andy Limbrick commented that the issue should be discussed further and that they do not want to see the use of PFA reduced. He added that securing waste licences requires time and effort which could be a major issue for small projects.

The AEP is lobbying the European Commission which is proposing to change the waste framework directive. In addition to that, AEP asks for clarification when PFE ceases to be a waste.

05/08/2005

Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005

The introduction into UK legislation of The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 will have a major impact on waste producers within the U.K.

The new regulations provide an updated waste catalogue which classifies even more waste as hazardous. This updated list can be viewed via Hazrem Environmental's member section which is free of charge to all users, simply register via the home page and look within the database section for the European Waste Catalogue Database.

Summary of The Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005: -

- New list of wastes has been produced.

- Requirement for hazardous waste producers to obtain a premise code from the Environment Agency (E.A.).

- Removal of the need to pre-notify the E.A. on any movements of hazardous waste.

- New consignment note format.

- Consignees to inform waste producer on amounts and types of wastes received.

- Instructions on how to decide whether your waste is hazardous (threshold levels).

If you need any further guidance on the new regulations or would like Hazrem Environmental to register you as a hazardous waste producer then please contact us via the link on the left hand side.