Are you 'normal' and 'regular'?
Environmental update 03/08/2011
At Mentor, we often get asked tricky questions via the advice
service or when visiting clients. We try and feature as many as we
can in our monthly e-bulletins. A particularly interesting question
recently asked related to the newly introduced Waste (England and
Wales) Regulations 2011.
Q. We're not a waste management Company, but do
carry our own waste. Do we need to register as a waste
carrier?
The short answer is "Yes", if you carry waste 'normally' and
'regularly'.
The regulations:
- require businesses to confirm that they have applied the waste
management hierarchy when transferring waste and to include a
declaration on their waste transfer note or consignment note;
- introduce a two-tier system for waste carrier and broker
registration, which includes those who carry their own waste, and
introduces a new concept of a waste dealer;
- make amendments to hazardous waste controls and
definition;
- exclude some categories of waste from waste controls, notably
animal by-products whilst include a small number of radioactive
waste materials.
Similar requires were implemented in Scotland on the
27th March 2011 in The Waste (Scotland) Regulations
2011.
The regulations state that if you 'normally' and 'regularly'
transport waste as part of your business and are classified as a
'specified person' (e.g. charity, waste collection authority or if
transporting your own waste) or otherwise transport waste for
profit, then you need to register with the Environment Agency as a
lower tier carrier from January 2014. Businesses not classified
as a specified person must register as a higher tier carrier; those
already registered will automatically be transferred to the higher
tier category.
Regarding the reference to 'normally' and 'regularly', it is
important to clarify that these terms only apply to lower tier
carriers. What is meant by 'normally' and 'regularly' is best
explained using a number of examples:
- For new waste producers and lower tier organisations, who would
usually rely on a waste contractor to transport their waste but,
for some reason they have been unable to provide this service
through no fault of their own, and the waste is transport by the
business itself as a one-off occurrence, it would not be a
normal and regular activity. Therefore, the
business would not need to register for that
occasion. However, any business transporting waste may be asked to
provide evidence at either the receiving site or by a
regulator.
- For those carriers who are classified as lower tier as a
result of the waste carried for other people (for example animal
by-products), it is likely that they do in fact
'normally and regularly' carry wastes and should be registered
(as lower tier).
Because this requirement does not apply until January 2014,
there is currently no option on the Environment Agency website to
register online or via an application form.