Environmental legislation from European Union and the UK national government is escalating and has a direct impact on the waste industry. Key environmental legislation can be found on the Environment Agency website.
Waste policy
The report of the Government’s Strategy Unit – ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ – and the EU Landfill Directive have provided a springboard for important waste policy and other strategic developments in 2003. Among the most significant were the following:
Landfill diversion targets for biodegradable waste
The EU Landfill Directive’s all-important requirement (under Article 4) to phase out landfilling of biodegradable waste took effect in the UK in 2003. Over the next 15 years, progressively greater quantities of biodegradable municipal waste must be diverted away from our landfills – so landfilling will contract to 35 per cent of its 1995 levels by 2020. The government consulted on the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme, a market-based mechanism designed to enable local authorities to meet their diversion targets at least cost. This was implemented in England in 2005.
The Municipal Waste Recycling Act 2003
It is increasingly recognised that separation of materials at source is the key to proper management of the municipal waste stream and the production of saleable products. This Act will require local authorities to provide segregated collection services for at least two materials at or near the kerbside by 2010.
Management of hazardous waste
The summer of 2004 marked the beginning of a new era in hazardous waste management in the UK. Under the Landfill Directive, the co-disposal of hazardous waste with municipal waste in landfill – the established disposal method for most hazardous wastes in the UK – was banned from mid-July. Hazardous waste now has to be landfilled separately, either in sites specially licensed for such wastes or in isolated cells engineered for stabilised non-reactive hazardous waste within sites receiving general waste. All hazardous waste will also have to be treated to pre-defined waste acceptance criteria.
Implementation of the WEEE and ELV Directives
Waste electronic and electrical equipment and end-of-life vehicles are now subject to recycling and recovery targets, which in turn will require new collection and treatment systems and cost recovery structures.
Waste Strategy for England 2007
In its revised waste strategy for 2007, DEFRA has set ambitious targets for a reduction in the overall impact of waste production and management. Measures include the reduction of non-recycled or recovered municipal and industrial waste, the meeting or exceeding of landfill diversion targets and the targeting of particular waste streams with the greatest potential for environmental benefit. Change will be driven by incentives such as stimulating investment in infrastructure and markets that support waste recycling and recovery, increasing the cost of landfilling through the landfill tax escalator and effective regulation by the Environment Agency.
