Strong progress revealed in tackling hazardous waste

The Environment Agency has revealed that only 900,000 tonnes of contaminated soils, fridges and other hazardous waste were sent to landfill in 2006 compared to 2.3 million tonnes two years before.

Hazardous wastes are wastes which are harmful to human health or to the environment, either immediately or over an extended period of time.

The improvement has been put down to increasing levels of reuse and recycling and growing efforts among manufacturers to avoid creating hazardous waste.

Martin Brocklehurst, head of external programmes at the Environment Agency, said: “The figures show that more hazardous waste such as chemical wastes, contaminated soils and fridges are being treated and recycled, which shows business and industry are adapting to the changes.

“As new legislation like the Landfill Directive and Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) Regulations kick in, we're starting to see a shift in how we deal with hazardous waste,” he added.

Recycled

According to the statistics, 64% more hazardous waste was reused or recycled in 2006 as opposed to 2004, up from 860,000 tonnes to 1.3 million tonnes.

A quarter of the total hazardous waste produced went to a liquid waste treatment plant on Teesside which treated waste prior to entering a waste water treatment plant.

On the flip side, the total amount of hazardous waste produced increased by 12% to six million tonnes.

However, the Environment Agency stressed that changes in hazardous waste classification -which re-classified some waste such a fridges as hazardous- and revised disposal and recovery codes made it difficult to make a direct comparison with previous data.

Mr Brocklehurst explained: “In part this increase can be attributed to changes in the rules on hazardous waste. It meant that more waste was classified as hazardous and so has to be handled differently.”

Other data from the Hazardous Waste Date Update 2006 showed that the reduced landfill disposal of hazardous waste has affected the quantity of waste moved. In 2006, the quantities of waste moved were down 50% from 2004.

However, only the West Midlands, Yorkshire & the Humber, North West, and South West achieve reasonable self containment, with the East Midlands and North East taking in large volumes of waste for landfill disposal from other regions such as London and Wales, the report explained.

Guidance

The EA revealed that it was currently revising its guidance and enforcement priorities for those involved in the production and management of hazardous waste. The onus will be on producers of hazardous waste to ensure their outputs are properly classified and treated, and sets out the current legal obligations for waste management operators.

By the end of 2008 the Agency expects the mixing of hazardous waste during treatment to cease, hazardous wastes with high organics carbon content to no longer be sent to landfill and all outputs of hazardous waste treatment facilities to be classified and coded in accordance with the Classification and Coding Guidance.

In order to help small businesses to comply, the Agency highlighted the benefits of HAZRED, an EU funded project which over the last three years has helped small businesses to manage and reduce hazardous waste more effectively.

Mr Brocklehurst said: “Businesses have an important role in reducing how much hazardous waste they produce. A forward-thinking Hampshire printing company – Greenhouse Graphics – has virtually eliminated producing hazardous waste form its operation after taking advantage of the EU funded project.”