OPRA reviews

The Environment Agency is tightening its regulation of the waste management industry. SITA UK is investing heavily to ensure that we stay abreast of the Agency's policies, procedures and operating standards.

Since July 2000, the Agency has been using the Operator and Pollution Risk Appraisal (OPRA) system - and latterly Environmental Protection Operator and Pollution Risk Appraisal (EP OPRA) - to assess the risk associated with waste management activities. Each site is scored according to the risk it poses to the environment, how that risk is controlled by the management systems in place, and the Operators Performance. The sum of these gives the EP OPRA rating for overall risk to the environment. The Environment Agency uses these scores to prioritise the regulation and monitoring of sites. EP OPRA scores also have a bearing on waste management licence changes.

Based on EP OPRA scoring, we have devised policies and procedures that ensure our sites return an EP OPRA score of less than 30 per year. This score is deemed by the Environment Agency to reflect sites with good operational practices. For sites where that is not currently possible, improvement plans are being developed and will be implemented to achieve this target.