Hazardous waste regulations The Hazardous Waste (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009 No. 507) came into force on 6th April 2009.
The main change has been to widen the scope of exemption from registration of premises. The exemption threshold for registration with the Agency is now 500kg of hazardous waste per year.
The changes currently only affect England.
Consultation on handling, transfer and transport of waste Following a recent consultation, the new Waste Controls (England and Wales) Regulations 2009 are expected to come in during October 2009. They will replace several pieces of existing legislation and will:
simplify the existing waste regulations and make them more effective
require waste brokers and dealers to register with the Environment Agency
set out requirements for transfer notes
control the seizure of vehicles by regulatory authorities.
The proposals, currently still in draft form, will affect businesses that produce, import, transport, store, treat and dispose of waste. They will also affect waste brokers and dealers.
Consultation on revised waste exemptions from environmental permitting New regulations taking into account responses to this consultation are expected to come into force in October 2009.
Defra, the Welsh Assembly Government and the Environment Agency asked for feedback on proposals to change the current system of waste exemptions from environmental permitting.
The new Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) 2009 regulations will offer exemptions from environmental permitting for low risk operations.
The new system will make it simpler to register exemptions with the Environment Agency. You will only have to register every three years, and you will need to keep fewer records.
The new regulations will businesses if they:
operate a waste recycling, recovery or disposal business
currently operate under an exemption
operate under an Environment Agency low risk position.
If you have an environmental permit, you may find that you only need an exemption under the new regulations.
New carriage regulations The Carriage of Dangerous Goods and Use of Transportable Pressure Equipment Regulations 2009 are due to come in on 1st July 2009, replacing the 2007 regulations. The most significant change relates to the information in writing provided to the driver. Commonly referred to as ‘tremcards’, these documents outline the hazardous nature of the goods and what action to take in the event of an emergency. Currently a driver is provided with a tremcard for each material with a different UN number eg methanol UN1230, sulphuric acid UN1830. When the new regulations come in the driver will only be required to carry a single 4-page document, which covers all hazard classes. This document is contained within the new version of ADR (European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road). A new issue of ADR typically precedes the issuing of domestic legislation by 6 months.
