The deadline for submitting a PPC (Pollution, Prevention and Control) permit application for the first tranche of 50 landfills – all for hazardous waste – is 9 June, 2003. But the Agency has revealed that with only four weeks left, it has received only two duly-made applications so far.
Tough
David Baxter, manager of the Agency's Landfill Directive team, said: “This is a deadline that landfill operators have to meet and we have given plenty of warning about. The waste industry should be clear: the Environment Agency will get tough with companies that do not meet this legally binding deadline.”
In a strongly worded statement, the Agency warned operators that if they did not submit their applications by the deadline, they would have to stop taking waste for disposal. “They will be committing an offence if any more waste for disposal is accepted at the landfill. As with other environmental crime, the Environment Agency will deal with such offences in line with its current enforcement and prosecution policy,” the Agency said.
Offence
It is thought that the Agency's statement will antagonise some key waste industry figures. The industry is known to have had a number of concerns about PPC applications and some sources have privately complained that guidance from the Agency has not been clear enough and expressed the opinion they have been “messed about”.
Landfill operators were given their application deadline dates six months ago in November 2002. Sites have been grouped into tranches in order to make processing of applications easier, with the most hazardous sites coming first.
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