In December 2002 the European Commission set limits on the number of contaminants in waste and has introduced testing procedures for checking that waste complies with these criteria. These must be transposed into UK legislation by July 2004 and must be in force by July 2005 for existing hazardous sites.
However, the government has indicated it could implement the criteria in July 2005, a year later than the European Commission requires, and the UK waste industry has expressed its “exasperation” at the delay.
The government's consultation paper proposes amending the Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 to incorporate the full European Waste Acceptance Criteria.
The amendments will mean that the treatment of all hazardous waste prior to landfill will be a legal requirement from July 2004.
A statement from DEFRA said: “The Waste Acceptance Criteria are predominantly lists of limit values for waste going to landfills. However, the Council Decision contains an option for Member States to allow the limit values for some parameters to be higher for individual wastes at individual sites, provided that waste producers or landfill operators demonstrate that there would be no additional risk to the environment. Under this option, the limits can be up to three times the WAC limit value.”
The government's preferred approach is to use site-specific risk assessments for 2004-2005 to determine the degree of treatment required for hazardous waste in that year. There could be a limited interim measure relating to sulphate and chloride leaching from a range of wastes where it would be extremely difficult to meet the full WAC in the short term, DEFRA said.
The Government also proposes to introduce more stringent limit values on cadmium and mercury in order to satisfy the requirements of the European Groundwater Directive and to extend Section 2.2.3 of the WAC to all high sulphate bearing materials.
Delay
Responding to the announced consultation, the UK waste industry expressed “exasperation” at the government's delay in implementing hazardous waste standards.
Dirk Hazell, chief executive of the Environmental Services Association, said: “While other European countries have already adopted this standard of treating hazardous waste, the UK is still dithering. This is much more serious than the 'f;ridge fiasco'. The waste management industry wants to be enabled to manage the UK's
hazardous waste to the standards achieved in other European countries but the Government is not letting this happen. Far from acting in a timely fashion it has instead sought reasons, however feeble, not to act and put the environment at risk.”
For more information on the consultation documents, which include the draft Landfill (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2004 and a partial Regulatory Impact Assessment, visit the DEFRA website.
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