020 7001 600017th October 2011:
Directive 2008/98/EC, which sets the stage for all waste legislation in all Member States of the EU, has been transposed into law by the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011.
The Directive was introduced for a number of reasons, including the following:
- to provide clarification of several important concepts, such as the definition of waste and the setting of criteria for 'end of waste' status,
- to strengthen waste prevention/reduction measures,
- to reduce the adverse effects on human health and the environment caused by waste generation and management,
- to use the practical application of the Waste Hierarchy to assist in moving towards a European "recycling society"
We will not be considering all of these aims and how they were tackled, but what we will be mentioning here is how the new Regulations have changed the information required to be included on waste transfer notes (WTNs).
Much is made in the Directive of the Waste Hierarchy, defined as, "a priority order of what constitutes the best overall environmental option in waste legislation and policy" and consisting of prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, other recovery (e.g. energy recovery) and, lastly, disposal.
In accordance with the letter and the spirit of the rWFD, the new Waste Regulations have made some changes to the information that is to be supplied in Waste Transfer Notes (WTNs). The two additional items that are to be included are the Standard Industry Classification code (SIC 2007) for the waste transferor and a statement by the transferor that the Waste Hierarchy had been taken into account before transfer of the waste.
These new requirements have been incorporated into our new waste transfer notes with effect from September 28th 2011.
