The Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011 implement the revised EU Waste Framework Directive 2008/98, which sets requirements for the collection, transport, recovery and disposal of waste. They require you to apply the ‘Waste Hierarchy’ before disposing of any of your business waste and introduces two-tier waste licensing. It adds extra controls if you are involved in hazardous waste activities. These regulations apply to you if your business is responsible for producing, storing, treating, transporting, recycling, importing, exporting, recovering or disposing of waste.
These Regulations are imposed under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
The revised Waste Framework Directive places greater emphasis on the waste hierarchy to ensure that waste is dealt with in the priority order of prevention, preparing for re-use, recycling, energy recovery and ultimately landfill. This reinforces the aim to reduce the risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals and the countryside that waste can cause, and without causing a nuisance through noise or odours through waste activities.
