Shredders across the country fell silent over the weekend because of Friday's new restrictions on hazardous waste and the Environment Agency's declaration that shredder residue should be considered hazardous unless accredited tests showed this not be the case.
Representatives from metal recyclers, dismantlers and the waste management industry met with the Agency and Defra yesterday (Tuesday), with talks going on until late evening to hammer out a deal.
As a result, the Environment Agency has issued a protocol in which it says it will view vehicle shredder waste as non-hazardous until November 1, 2004, if the end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) concerned have had the following components removed:
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Lead acid batteries
Components identified as containing mercury (eg switches)
Engine oils and oil filters
Fuels
After that date, the Agency said it will view vehicle shredder residue as non-hazardous only if the ELVs have been depolluted “in accordance with the DTI/Defra depollution guidance”. The agreed criteria is to be demonstrated by recyclers in a waste transfer note when passing the residue to landfill operators.
Transfer note
Landfill operators have been told that they may rely on a transfer note as sufficient evidence that the material is non-hazardous. Shredder residue from vehicles that have not been depolluted is to be treated as hazardous and will now have to go to hazardous-only disposal facilities.
Following the release of the Agency statement, the British Metal Recycling Association director general told letsrecycle.com that “the majority of shredders are about to go or are already beginning to start up”, and that recyclers are “chock-a-block with stock”.
Mr Marshall said: “It's been a long week of negotiation, we have been waiting for this legal agreement, which is robust and appropriate. If the shredder residue is from depolluted vehicles it is not hazardous – that is how it is in the ELV Directive, so that is how it should be.”
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