The issue of waste is addressed in various pieces of legislation summarised below:
Duty of Care
Controlled Waste
Hazardous Waste
Registration of Carriers
Waste Management Licensing
Packaging Regulations
 

Duty of Care
The Environmental Protection Regulations (Duty of Care) 1991 (SI 1991 No. 2839) (as amended SI 2003 No. 63)

As a business, you have a duty to ensure that any waste you produce is handled safely and in accordance with the law (see below). This is the ‘Duty of Care’ and it applies to anyone who produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste from business or industry or acts as a waste broker in this respect.
You must make sure that anyone that you pass your waste on to, such as a waste contractor, scrap metal merchant, recycler, local council or skip hire company, is authorised to take it. If you don’t, and your waste is illegally disposed of, you could be held responsible.

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Controlled Waste
The Controlled Waste Regulation 1992 (SI 1992 No. 588)

Commercial, industrial, household wastes and Special Wastes are classified and treated as Controlled Waste. Controlled Waste must be stored properly, collected by a registered waste carrier and disposed of at an authorised disposal facility, in line with the producer’s Duty of Care.

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Hazardous Waste
The Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2005
(SI 2005 No. 894)

On 16 July 2005, new controls on Hazardous Waste came into force. These replace the previous Special Waste regime. Sites that produce Hazardous Waste must register their premises with the Environment Agency each year. This removes the need to pre-notify the Environment Agency of Special Waste movements.

Examples of wastes classed as hazardous include: asbestos, lead-acid batteries, electrical equipment containing components such as cathode ray tubes (televisions), oily sludges, solvents, fluorescent light tubes, chemical wastes and pesticides. 

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Registration of Carriers
The Controlled Waste (Registration of Carriers and Seizure of Vehicles) Regulations 1991 (SI 1991 No. 1624), (as amended SI 1998 No. 605)

A Waste Carrier is someone whose business or part of their business involves the transportation of waste. They must register with the Environment Agency and undertake various other duties. Generally, companies are exempt if they are a waste producer carrying their own waste.

A notable exception to this is building or demolition waste. If a company transports its own building or demolition waste, it must register as a waste carrier with the Environment Agency. Construction companies should note that unused raw materials, which were new when purchased and can be used later in their original form, are not waste. General demolition materials, scrap and hardcore amongst other unwanted items are, however, waste and subject to these regulations.

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Waste Management Licensing
The Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994 (SI 1994 No. 1056), (as amended 2005 No. 1728)

This piece of legislation is unlikely to apply to organisations that only store waste which they produce and regularly remove it from their site.

It applies to companies that deposit, keep (store waste that they do not produce), treat (including recycling and using mobile plant) or dispose of Controlled Waste in or on any land or by means of a mobile plant, or if they knowingly permit any of these activities. These require a Waste Management License or an official exemption, depending upon the duration of storage, types and quantities of wastes being handled and the activity carried out on site.

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Packaging Regulations
The Producer Responsibility Obligations (Pacaging Waste) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005 No. 3468)

Companies (or groups of companies) with a turnover exceeding £2 million and handling more than 50 tonnes of packaging per year are obliged to recover and recycle a proportion of the packaging waste materials that they supply with their products. Obligated companies must register with the Environment Agency and then demonstrate the achievement of their recovery and recycling targets or join an approved compliance scheme.

Broadly this affects companies involved in the manufacture of raw materials used to produce packaging materials, conversion of packaging materials to packaging, the filling of packaging with product or the selling of packaged product to an end user. It also applies to companies that import packaging or packaged goods.

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