The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published their Waste Management Plan for England that is supported by an Environmental Report produced as part of a Strategic Environmental Assessment. To help operators understand how the Waste Management Plan for England may impact them, Wiser Environment explains how the waste controls apply.
Contents
– Waste Management Analysis
– Waste Hierarchy
– Waste Regulation
– Exporting Waste
– Extended Producer Responsibility
– Waste Planning
– Consultation on the Waste Management Plan for England
– Further Information on the Waste Management Plan for England
The Waste Management Plan for England was first introduced in December 2013 to fulfil the mandatory requirements of the Waste Framework Directive (2008/98/EC). Since then and per the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011, the UK Government has reviewed the plan every six years.
The UK’s circular economy intends to efficiently maximise resources through prevention, reuse, recycling and avoiding disposal.
The Plan brings several waste management policies under one roof. This includes the 25-year Environment Plan and the National Planning Policy for Waste. Following the Waste Framework Directive and supporting the Resources and Waste Strategy, the Plan intends to move England away from a ‘take, make, use, throw’ economic model and towards a ‘recycling society’ with a circular economy. Broadly, a circular economy involves minimising waste generation by cycling materials and resources in the economy as long as possible. In other words, using waste as a resource and extracting their maximum value. The Resources and Waste Strategy summarises the environmental ambition into five objectives:
- To work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025;
- To work towards eliminating food waste to landfill by 2030;
- To eliminate avoidable plastic waste over the lifetime of the 25 Year Environment Plan;
- To double resource productivity by 2050; and
- To eliminate avoidable waste of all kinds by 2050.
To help support England’s environmental ambitions, the Waste Management Plan provides an overview of waste management procedures and objectives. The high-level and non-site specific document includes an analysis of the current waste management situation, a breakdown of waste arisings, measures to encourage recycling and assessment of waste infrastructure.
Waste Management Analysis
The Waste Management Plan for England highlights that there has been a shift away from landfilling waste. Specifically, it states: “At the turn of the century, the majority of waste produced in the UK was being landfilled at a minimal (financial) cost and recycling was in its relative infancy. For example, only 12% of all local authority managed waste was recycled or composted in England in 2000/01, compared to 42.7% in 2018/19. Meanwhile, the proportion of local authority waste sent to landfill has fallen from 79.0% to 10.8% over the same period”.
The Government attributes this drive away from utilising landfills to a combination of regulatory, policy and financial measures. These measures include recycling targets, landfill tax and targeted financial support. Regardless of this positive progress, the Plan does admit that there are opportunities for improvement in some areas. For instance, the Plan highlights that improvements to recycling rates have slowed. To push society towards better use of its resources, the Government advocates the use of a waste hierarchy and waste regulation.
Waste hierarchy
Guiding and ranking treatment options, the waste hierarchy prioritises forms the foundation of waste management in the UK. According to the Plan, the waste hierarchy has increased the “rates of recovery and recycling and generated much more energy from waste”. Moving forward, the Government plans:
- Prevention – increase prevention by placing a stronger emphasis on sustainable production;
- Re-use – encourage reuse through sustainably designed products that can be easily re-usable or upgradable;
- Recycling – improve the quantity and quality of recyclables by working closely with local authorities, improving transparency within materials recovery facilities and supporting the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP);
- Other Recovery – enable other recovery options through committing to increasing the energy from waste produced through anaerobic digestion and supporting decarbonisation of transport, heat and power; and
- Disposal – Use the landfill tax to discourage disposal and reinforce its ‘last resort’ status.
Evolution of Waste Management Practices (source: Resources and Waste Strategy, 2018)
Waste regulation
In England, the waste regulatory framework seeks to protect the environment and human health by proportionately targeting waste operations “with poor standards of compliance or who cause a nuisance or harm and those who deliberately flout the law”. Enforcing these efforts and disrupting suspected illegal activities, England’s primary waste regulatory – the Environment Agency – has had its waste crime budget increased by £60m until 2022. This additional funding help supports England’s new strategic approach outlined in the Resources and Waste Strategy. In a three-pronged approach – prevent, detect and deter – the new strategy intends to tackle the industry’s crime and poor performance issues.
Polluter pays principle
The Waste Management Plan recognises that “regulation and its enforcement must be proportionate”. With this in mind, the polluter pays principle places the burden of environmental damage on to the original waste producer. With distributors of products potentially sharing these costs too. The Plan argues that the polluter pays principle reinforces the producer’s responsibility to limit their impact upon the environment.
According to the UK Government, the International Waste Shipments amendment ensures that the UK’s rules governing shipments between the UK and the EU are aligned with the EU.
Exporting waste
Outlined in the Plan, the EA’s role also includes regulating the export of waste abroad. The Plan estimates that the UK exports up to “16.3 million tonnes of materials for recycling per year”. Working closely with the HM Revenue and Customs and other customs authorities, the EA stopped 12,690 tonnes of illegal waste exports from leaving the UK in 2018/19.
Strategically, the EA’s investigators targetted high-risk waste types such as contaminated or misdescribed recyclable materials. During that same period, the dedicated fraud prevention team inspected 926 shipping containers and also stopped waste from reaching ports through intervention at waste sites.
The Plan acknowledges that controls on waste exports are strict and those restrictions are partially based on Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and OECD Council Decision on the Control of Transfrontier Movements of Wastes Destined for Recovery Operations. Furthermore, the EU Exit Regulations relating to International Waste Shipments will come into effect and apply once the Brexit transition period is completed.
Extended Producer Responsibility
Underscoring its commitment to a circular economy, the Plan confirms that the Extender Producer Responsibility (EPR) policy will undergo a review and expansion. To clarify, the EPR scheme incentivises producers to design easily reusable and recyclable products. The Plan considers the “…EPR to be a crucial tool in moving waste up the hierarchy and stimulating growth in the secondary materials markets”.
Currently – the EPR scheme covers packaging waste, end-of-life vehicles, batteries and accumulators and waste electrical and electronic equipment. Moving forward, the Plan supports the expansion of the EPR policy into more waste streams. These include textiles, bulky waste, construction and demolition waste, vehicle tyres and Fishing gear.
Waste Planning
Currently, National Planning Policy for Waste outlines how local waste planning authorities should:
- Identify demand for waste management facilities through meaningful engagement with local communities, opportunities to move waste up the waste hierarchy and quantitatively demonstrate the market’s need for additional infrastructure;
- Select appropriate locations that follow the proximity principle, co-locate waste management facilities together with complementary activities and prioritise the re-use of previously-developed land;
- Ensure that waste sites contribute positively to the local area and limit their impact upon the environment.
The Plan argues that England has adequate waste treatment infrastructure to the targets set by both the Waste and Emissions Trading Act 2003 and the Landfill (Maximum Landfill Amount) Regulations 2011. Whilst the Plan intends to “…continue to support local [waste planning] authorities to facilitate the provision of necessary waste infrastructure…”, there is a desire to reform the waste planning system so it better reflects a contemporary circular economy.
To that end, the Government seeks to make consequential changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and to the National Planning Policy for Waste. Potential reforms include standardising planning documentation, removing unnecessary assessment, making better use of technology and prioritising sustainability.
Consultation on the Waste Management Plan for England
The Waste Management Plan for England is supported by an Environmental Report produced as part of a Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Defra is currently hosting a public consultation on the Waste Management Plan for England. The purpose of the consultation is to ensure that the Plan will fulfil the obligations of the Waste Regulations 2011.
Notably, Defra has predicted that the Plan will not apply any additional burdens to business. This is because it does not propose any new policies. Furthermore, the accompanying Environmental Report claims that the Plan will produce positive socio-economic and environmental benefits; increasing waste prevention and decreasing waste disposal.
Importantly, the consultation closes on the 15th of October. To help waste operators to respond in time, a selection of the key consultation questions have been listed below:
“Will the draft Waste Management Plan for England – when combined with the location-specific guidance in waste planning policy – meet the requirements of Schedule 1 of the Waste (England and Wales) Regulations 2011?”
“Do you agree with the conclusions of the Environmental Report?”
“Do you agree or disagree with the following statement: ‘There will be no additional burdens for businesses, consumers and local authorities arising directly from the adoption of the Plan’”
Further information on the waste management plan for England
For more help and support with determining the impact of this guidance and assistance in implementing these appropriate measures contact Wiser Environment or call on 01480 462232.
