Environmental Law
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WASTE MANAGEMENT I
WASTE HIERARCHY
EUROPEAN UNION FRAMEWORK
WASTE DIRECTIVE
DEFINITION OF WASTE +
ASSOCIATED PROBLEMS
Waste Management I
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 European Union Waste Framework Directive 2008,
provides legislative framework for the collection,
transport, recovery and disposal of waste
 Definition of Waste
 Requires MSs to take the necessary measures to
ensure waste is recovered or disposed of without
endangering human health or causing harm to the
environment
 Permitting, Registration and Inspection
Requirements
Waste Management I
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 Requires MSs to take appropriate measures to
encourage:
 Firstly, the prevention or reduction of waste
production and its harmfulness;
 Secondly, the recovery of waste by means of
recycling, re-use or reclamation or any other
process in order to extract secondary raw materials,
or use waste as a source of energy
Waste Hierarchy
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 Article 4 of the revised EU Waste Framework
Directive 2008/98/EC sets out five steps for dealing
with waste, ranked according to environmental
impact
The Waste Hierarchy: (descending order)
 Prevention /Re-Use
 Preparing for Re-Use
 Recycling
 Other Recovery
 Disposal
Waste Hierarchy
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 Transposed into UK law
 Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011
 Definitions of each stage: Article 3 Directive
2008/98/EC
 Non-Exhaustive lists of disposal and recovery
operations: Annexes I and II Directive
 Prevention: measures taken before a substance,
material or product becomes waste that reduce
quantity of waste (including re-use)
Waste Hierarchy
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 Preparing for Re-Use: Checking, cleaning or repairing
recovery operations which prepare products that have
become waste so that they can be re-used without any
other pre-processing
 Recycling: Recovery operations re-processing waste
materials into products, materials, substances for the
original or other purposes. Includes reprocessing of
organic materials. Does not include energy recovery
 Recovery: Any operation, the principal result of which is
waste serving a useful purpose by replacing other
materials which would otherwise have been used, or
waste being prepared to fulfil that function
Waste Hierarchy
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 Disposal: Any operation which is not recovery even
where the operation has a secondary consequence
the reclamation of substances or energy (eg Landfill
/ Incineration) Annex I sets out non-exhaustive list
of disposal operations.
 Waste Management Policy directed to all those
concerned with waste and not just its final disposal.
 Waste Framework Directive 2008 transposed into
UK law in Waste (England and Wales) Regulations
2011
Definition of Waste
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 S75(4) Environmental Protection Act (EPA) 1990:
‘Controlled waste’ means household, industrial and
commercial waste or any such waste
 S75(2) EPA 1990 ‘Waste’ means anything that is waste
within meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2008/98/EC
[Amended by Schedule 4, Part 1 Sect. 8(a) The Waste
(England and Wales) Regulations 2011]
 Article 3(1) Dir. 2008/98 ‘Waste’ means any substance or
object which the holder discards or intends or is required
to discard
Definition of Waste
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 In determining whether waste has been discarded it is a
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factor of importance if it has been consigned for waste
recovery or waste disposal. If it has it constitutes waste.
Annex I to EU Directive lists Disposal operations
List of Recovery operations in Annex 2
Dividing line between use of raw materials in a normal
industrial cycle (eg use of / re-use of fuel) [non-waste?]
and consignment of waste to a recovery operation is fine
[waste]. When does waste cease to be waste?
Decided whether waste and thus regulated - on a case by
case basis