Most UK businesses are "completely unprepared" for major new waste regulations coming in on October 31, requiring waste to be "pre-treated" before it is sent to landfill.

That is the view of business advisory company Grant Thornton, which said the "vast majority" of companies in this country are not ready for the legislation, which will require their non-hazardous waste to undergo some form of treatment before being landfilled (see letsrecycle.com story).

From October 31, commercial and industrial waste must be treated physically, biologically, chemically or thermally before going to landfill

Grant Thornton's government and infrastructure advisory team warned of "serious" penalties for those companies who do not comply with the new pre-treatment regulations.

Meanwhile, landfill operators are unhappy that they look set to take on the lion's share of legal responsibilities for waste coming in to their sites, to make sure waste producers have carried out pre-treatment.

Writing in the new Opinions section launched by letsrecycle.com today, SITA UK technical director Gev Eduljee said that while landfill operators have to make sure waste they take in has been pretreated, "there is little by way of technical guidance that addresses the extent to which treatment should be applied to a waste prior to landfilling."

Regulations

The pre-treatment regulations come within the UK Landfill Regulations of 2002, bringing in requirements originally set by Europe's Landfill Directive.

From October 31, commercial and industrial waste must go through some form of physical, thermal, chemical, or biological process before it can be sent to a landfill for disposal. Ultimately, the legislation seeks to divert more material away from landfill through recycling or recovery processes.

After discussions with industry clients, Grant Thornton's waste specialist and director Nigel Mattravers said the new regulations had been "virtually ignored" by the business sector, and companies could incur penalties as a result.

He said: "Crucially, it isn't just manufacturers that will now have to treat their own non-hazardous waste before it is collected; every business in the country, including high street retailers, City offices and country pubs must now produce their own reports on how they have treated their waste, in accordance with the EA's guidelines."

While in other European countries, the pre-treatment requirements of the Landfill Directive have been interpreted to mean waste must be recycled or sent to a recovery facility, with only residues of those processes going to landfill, the UK has taken a more lenient view.

The UK pre-treatment requirements mean only that the characteristics of waste have to be changed - to reduce its volume, hazardous nature, to facilitate its handling and/or enhance its recovery. This could include waste having certain recyclable materials removed for reprocessing.

Gev Eduljee, who is writing in the letsrecycle.com Opinions section launched today, warns of a lack of guidance available on exactly what is meant by pretreatment under the regulations. He said the form that the regulations take mean they are "unlikely to have as dramatic an impact on "[increasing] waste recycling and recovery" as the Government might have hoped."

"The Government has missed a trick to take waste management to a new level," Mr Eduljee said.

Policing

The SITA technical director also warned that policing the pretreatment regulations would be more difficult because of the government's decision to place the legal responsibility for compliance onto landfill operators "instead of amending the duty of care on waste producers".

Mr Mattravers said indications from the Environment Agency suggested the policing of the system will be "very much a top down affair", with serious penalties for those falsifying pre-treatment evidence - and for landfill operators who do not examine waste properly.

He said: "What is most vague is how heavily these rules will in fact be enforced, and whether the EA is planning to get tougher over time. It may very well be that landfills are left with much of the responsibility for policing these changes, as it is simply easier to penalise a central operator than try and go after individual waste producers."

"Whatever the enforcement system, it is clear that UK businesses must start preparing for the changes, now," Mattravers concluded.

For more on the new landfill pretreatment regulations, click here to read Dr Gev Eduljee's column in the new letsrecycle.com Opinions section.