TEEP legal threat ‘unhelpful and unnecessary’

The comments come after the Environment Agency outlined its plans to enforce the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations, which come into effect from January 2015.

LARAC has welcomed the stance taken by the Agency, which has stated that it is keen to avoid ‘costly and time consuming’ legal action over those who might be failing to meet the requirements of the Regulations, stating that it sees this route as a ‘last resort’ (see letsrecycle.com story).

The Regulations require local authorities to separately collect at least paper, metal, plastic and glass, unless it is not technically, environmentally or economically practicable (TEEP) for them to do so, or not necessary to allow high quality recycling of the material.

However, the threat of legal action from third party groups still looms over many councils. One of these groups is UK Recyclate, lead by some of the key figures behind the unsuccessful Judicial Review against the government over its stance on commingling (see letsrecycle.com story).

Warning

Earlier in the year UK Recyclate director Andy Moore wrote to a number of local authorities, warning that they may face a ‘starring part’ in legal action and urging them to move away from a commingled waste collection service (see letsrecycle.com story).

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When contacted by letsrecycle.com today (October 2), Mr Moore declined to comment on the Environment Agency’s proposals. However, the UK Recyclate director is due to address LARAC’s annual conference in Nottingham this month, where he is expected to make his case for councils to adopt separate collections using kerbside sort.

LARAC, which has long argued in favour of councils having the freedom to choose collection systems according to local needs has welcomed the approach to enforcement being taken by the Environment Agency, which it describes as ‘sensible and realistic’.

‘Sensible’

Andrew Bird, LARAC chair, said: “The manner in which the EA has outlined it will undertake enforcement is sensible and right for the regulations and what they are intended to receive. Taking a risk based approach is part of modern day regulatory work and right for these situations. We have been really pleased with the dialogue we have had with the EA and LARAC will continue to work with them to ensure that local authorities rise to the challenge of meeting these requirements.”

But, the group has also called for all parties within the waste and recycling industry to back local authorities and their waste contractors as they seek to assess their collection systems to ensure they are compliant with the regulations. The group has claimed that the restricted time that they have had to prepare, largely due to the delay caused by the Judicial Review, has made it more difficult for local authorities to ensure they are compliant.

The group added: “LARAC feels any further talk of legal action against local authorities is unhelpful and not needed and the EA should be left to undertake any action that may be required.”