Agency guidance this week on new waste rules said: “It is not anticipated that any stockpiling in 'TV mountains' will occur, as it did recently with fridges.”
This is because householders can dispose of sets as normal for the foreseeable future, it explained.
The European Hazardous Waste List was redefined in January to include materials such as cars, TVs and computers. But although the Landfill Directive allows hazardous waste to be landfilled only in hazardous waste sites, the Landfill Regulations 2002 say all household waste can be accepted by non-hazardous sites.
Only when the newly-defined hazardous waste types are separated from municipal waste will they have to be taken to specialist sites.
“Householders can still put their old TV set into the bin,” the report stressed.
The WEEE Directive in 2004 will also limit the impact of the new list, as it will encourage producer responsibility, the guidance added. This is likely to stimulate recovery of TVs, rather than disposal.
However, until DEFRA amends the Special Waste Regulations 1996, people producing, transporting and treating the newly-defined hazardous waste in the UK will be unaffected, said the EA.
A DEFRA consultation to propose changed to the Special Waste Regulations 1996 in light of the Hazardous Waste List is expected this year.
The current stockpiling of fridges in the UK stems from the Ozone Depleting Substances Regulations in January. These required CFCs from fridge foam to be recycled in specialist facilities not yet available in the UK. But unlike with the ODS regulations, said the EA, there is still an acceptable disposal route for hazardous waste.
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