The Environment Agency’s move last week to effectively double down on the enclosed building appropriate measure rule has been described as “concerning” and “baffling” by parts of the waste industry.
On 17 March, the Agency published a response document to a consultation it ran last year on appropriate measures for waste facilities (see letsrecycle.com story).
The default option for a waste and recycling site is likely to be inside a building (picture: Shutterstock)
While respondents cited the enclosed building rule as a “significant concern” — raising issues around planning permission, cost and environmental impact — the Agency said that “when designed properly” buildings helped with a wide range of emissions.
It added that running waste activities within a building was “clearly an appropriate measure”.
‘Dread’
Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, said it was concerning many of its members which operate outside an enclosed building would have to make a “compelling justification” not to have their operations confined.
“Whilst we of course fully embrace measures to improve environmental performance in critical areas, this one size fits all approach is inappropriate. Many of our members operate outside the confines of a building with negligible impact on their surrounding environment,” he said.
Dr Simon Ellin has been CEO of the Recycling Association since 2010
Mr Ellin added: “The fact that they will now have to make a ‘compelling justification’ not to have their operation confined within a building fills me with dread. The timing of this is inappropriate too in a post-Covid environment where costs are already increasing with, for example, the withdrawal of the red diesel benefit. The potential costs here are enormous and many smaller facilities will not be able to survive.”
Mr Ellin added that the guidance in its current form could “effectively shut down” some of the recycling facilities which are needed to implement aspects of the Resources and Waste Strategy, a move he described as “baffling”.
He said the guidance seems to view recycling facilities in the same way as potentially horribly polluting waste operations run by unscrupulous operators.
Compulsory
The Agency has said throughout that the proposed regulations are not mandatory nor definitive, but look to “frame the discussion and act as a starting point we will have with the operator”.
It has said the guidance wouldn’t mean that every waste activity would have to be enclosed, but an operator would “have regard to our guidance and make a compelling justification as to what is being done” instead.
The Agency ran the consultation between September and November 2020 on a draft guidance document it published on appropriate measures for permitted facilities.
Legal challenge
Skip hire and waste sector trade association UROC has “grave concerns” about the problems this guidance presents and fears that it amounts to “back door regulation”.
Jennifer Watts is chief executive of UROC
In its consultation response, UROC said that there could be potential grounds for legal challenge of the proposals referencing the incompatibility with the requirements for installations and the imposition of BAT.
CEO for UROC Jennifer Watts said: “We are talking to a number of key industry stakeholders to explore the issues and have requested the EA delay publishing the guidance until further dialogue has taken place, as the impacts on businesses are so serious we consider it paramount to work with the regulator to find a sensible outcome.”
BREF
The Agency guidance document came on the back of the development of the European waste management BREF, which covers the installations of a number of hazardous and non-hazardous treatments. The guide was seen as implementing the BREF and the concept of BAT, best available techniques.
“Article 13 of the Waste Framework Directive requires Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that waste management is carried out without endangering human health”
The Agency addressed concerns on the legality of the guidance in the consultation response document. The Agency said: “We apply BAT to installations and ‘necessary measures’ to waste operations and exemptions, generically being described as ‘appropriate measures’. Article 13 of the Waste Framework Directive requires Member States to take the necessary measures to ensure that waste management is carried out without endangering human health and without harming the environment.
“As required by the Environmental Permitting Regulations 2016, the Environment Agency must exercise its relevant functions, including implementing Article 13 of the Waste Framework Directive (WFD), amongst other provisions.”
‘One size fits all’
Elsewhere, the head of regulation at the ESA, Sam Corp, said: “We are pleased the Environment Agency has recognised our concern, shared by many across the industry, that the previous draft guidance adopted ‘a one size fits all’ approach.
Sam Corp of the ESA welcomed the fact the Agency recognised concerns over a ‘one size fits all’ approach
“In practice, there are differing levels of risk within the sector that need to be taken assessed on a site-specific basis, and the EA’s response recognises the subsequent need for a more flexible approach which will, of course, depend on the location and nature of the activities being carried out.
“The EA also appears, to some extent, to recognise industry concerns about the apparent requirement for the default enclosure of waste operations. However, whilst the response appears to enable a risk-based approach to enclosure, much will depend on how the final guidance is worded and how it is interpreted by the EA across the country, particularly regarding what constitutes appropriate ‘alternative measures’. ESA and its members will be carefully monitoring the impact of the guidance as it is rolled out.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Waste Managment
