The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 due to come into force next year will impact on a broad range of organizations including those that produce, carry, store, treat or dispose of waste as the latest round of updates from the revised EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98.
The regulations require businesses to confirm that they have applied the waste management hierarchy when transferring waste. This requirement extends the existing duty of care for waste and treatment requirements to ensure that organizations consider, prevention, preparing for reuse, recycling, and recovery, of waste prior to disposal.
Whenever you pass waste on to someone else, you will have to declare on the waste transfer note, or consignment note for hazardous waste, that you have applied the waste management hierarchy.
Whilst the concept is not new, the legal duty to follow the principle is. The regulations also introduce a two-tier system for waste carrier and broker registration, including a new concept of a waste dealer, and make amendments to hazardous waste controls introducing a new category, H13 Sensitizing.
