Legislation
Local authorities are required to comply with a wide range of waste and recycling legislation.
Like businesses, they have a Duty of Care to handle waste responsibly but they also have a range of other responsibilities which specifically relate to municipal waste. Much of this regulation derives from the European Union.
One of the key pieces of legislation is the Landfill Directive which sets targets for member states to reduce the amount of municipal biodegradable waste sent to landfill, with targets set for 2010, 2013 and 2020. In England, this has been implemented through the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme. This sees councils given a decreasing number of allowances each year for sending waste to landfill, which they can trade. Similar schemes are in operation in Scotland and Wales.
The Waste Framework Directive, which was revised in 2008, is also very important and is likely to become more so. It sets targets for member states to recycle 50% of household waste by 2020 and to introduce separate collection of at least four materials by 2015.
Waste management in general is highly regulated and local authorities are no exception. Since the Environmental Protection Act came into force in 1990, more and more controls have come in and today this governs everything from the generation, transportation and disposal of waste to the registration of carriers and brokers, environmental permitting, landfill, hazardous waste, producer responsibility and the transfrontier shipment of waste.
For details of the full range of waste legislation which impacts on councils, please consult the navigation on the left.
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