Sector Plan for the Waste Management Industry

Sector Plan for the Waste Management Industry

FOREWORD

In Delivering for the Environment – a 21st Century Approach to Regulation, we set out how we are seeking to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our regulatory approach. We are aligning our regulatory priorities in order to address the environmental outcomes and targets identified in our Environmental Vision and Corporate Strategy. We also encourage businesses to keep the environment at the centre of their thinking. To progress these objectives, we are now identifying and addressing the priority environmental issues resulting from individual sector activities.

We are developing and implementing environmental improvement plans for regulated business sectors. The purpose of these Sector Plans is to:

· focus on the most significant risks the sector poses and the impacts it has on the environment;

· improve the sector's environmental management and performance;

· prioritise and target our effort within and across sectors;

· achieve, through co-operation with sectors, environmental benefits beyond those that can be achieved just through regulation;

· monitor progress in delivering the environmental improvements.

The waste management sector covers those who manage the waste that society produces. Not just the waste thrown away in household dustbins, but also the waste generated across industry and by the commercial and service sectors.

The challenge for society is to move towards more sustainable consumption and production, and to avoid creating waste in the first place. The main role of the waste management sector is to ensure that the recovery or disposal of waste has a minimal impact on the environment and human health. However, dealing with waste still gives rise to a considerable number of incidents that can affect quality of life and the local environment. The sector also has an increasing role to work with businesses to reduce the volumes of waste they produce and to secure greater recovery of the raw materials contained in waste.

There are also those that deliberately flout the rules that are designed to protect human health and the environment, thus undermining the legitimate waste management sector. Tackling this growing issue is a major part of this plan.

This Plan provides an overview of the waste management sector in England and Wales. It examines the sector's impacts on the environment and identifies what the sector, the Environment Agency and others must do to ensure that these environmental impacts are minimised and managed safely.

This is not the end of a process, but the beginning. Various strategic reviews are being undertaken that will affect the waste management industry and a number of new or revised pieces of legislation are coming into force. These changes may influence the Sector Plan objectives and specified targets. This Plan will be reviewed to reflect these changes.

DR PAUL LEINSTER

ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE

CONTENTS

1. background 5

2. CONTEXT 7

3. overview of the waste sector 9

3.1 Scope of the Sector 9

3.2 Legislative Considerations 10

3.3 Environmental Pressures 10

3.4 Non-compliance within the Regulated Community 11

3.5 Illegal Activity 11

3.6 Use of waste as a Resource 12

3.7 Competence 12

3.8 Health and Safety 13

3.9 Social Considerations 14

4. Sector objectives 15

5. performance indicators AND TARGETS 17

6. the way forward 30

1. background

This is the Environment Agency’s Sector Plan for the waste management industry in England and Wales.

We are developing Sector Plans with a number of selected industry sectors.[1] We want to encourage business in England and Wales to look after the environment and help us to achieve our vision for the environment and corporate goals. Sector Plans describe the environmental performance for the industry sector and set out priorities for its improvement.

Our vision is that waste will be reduced and have the smallest possible impact on health and the environment. Our mission is to:

· encourage everyone to use resources more efficiently and take responsibility for the waste they produce;

· drive businesses to improve their environmental performance;

· make waste crime unacceptable.

This Plan looks particularly at the second of these. It has been produced in collaboration with the waste management industry and its main trade body, the Environmental Services Association (ESA). The Plan provides the operators and the Environment Agency with a strategic framework within which to work to achieve both environmental and operational benefits, and carries messages applicable to a wider audience. It has been informed by a Sector Report,[2] which provides a wider context.

The waste management industry promotes the innovative use of technological solutions and its operational activities are designed to reduce the environmental and human health impacts of waste arisings. Traditionally waste managers have had little direct control over the quantities and composition of waste. However, they do provide guidance and support to waste producers to maximise resource recovery and to help ensure the safe management of waste.

Waste is seen as a problem created by and on behalf of society, arising from almost all activities. Regulatory controls significantly influence how waste is collected, processed and managed. But society increasingly needs to view wasted resources as a missed opportunity.

The Environment Agency is also working on Sector Plans with the main waste producing industries in England and Wales to ensure that waste minimisation and appropriate treatment take place upstream of the waste management industry. We will drive these changes through legislation such as the Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC) regime, which requires operators to use resources efficiently. We will encourage sectors that we do not regulate directly (e.g. the construction industry) to adopt voluntary mechanisms to waste less and make more effective use of resources.

This Sector Plan’s overall aim is to develop more sustainable waste management in England and Wales through effective management control and improvement of environmental regulation.

This Sector Plan sets out the views of the Environment Agency and the waste management industry on how to address some of the main environmental, regulatory and wider opportunities facing the sector. Although this Plan is not exhaustive, it sets an agreed baseline from which we can work together to improve the environmental performance, overall management and regulation of the waste management industry.

The real work will commence with the development of an Action Plan.[3] The Action Plan will set out:

· the steps the Environment Agency and the waste management industry will take to meet the objectives and targets set out in Section 4 of this Sector Plan;

· how we will jointly monitor progress.

The objectives and targets contained in this Sector Plan will be reviewed in light of that progress.

2. CONTEXT

This is a time of unprecedented change for the waste management industry. The European Commission published its Thematic Strategy on the Prevention and Recycling of Waste[4] in December 2005 and is reviewing the Waste Framework Directive. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) consulted in spring 2006 on its Review of England’s Waste Strategy[5] and the Welsh Assembly Government will commence its review of the Welsh Strategy in 2007. This Sector Plan will be reviewed in light of the publication of these strategies.

The underlying theme is the need to:

· drive waste up the hierarchy for waste management;

· ensure an integrated approach to sustainable consumption and production.

This Plan does not set out to implement these requirements, but is intended to help achieve effective results.

The waste management industry and the Environment Agency recognise the challenge posed by the targets set by the Landfill Directive for the diversion of biodegradable municipal waste (BMW) from landfill. Both organisations will work closely with Defra through the Waste Infrastructure Development Programme[6] and with local authorities to ensure that we play our part in the development of the new infrastructure that is required.

Meeting these challenges requires:

· a modern and professional industry

· a modern and professional regulator

· working in partnership to help prevent high environmental standards being undermined by those who flout the rules;

· work with local authorities responsible for municipal solid waste (MSW) collection and disposal services;

· work with the planning regime to ensure the required facilities are located in the right place;

· co-operation with other regulators such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to avoid contradiction and duplication of effort.

There are other challenges that are outside the scope of this current Plan. The industry and the Environment Agency need modern regulatory regimes that are based on environmental outcomes and allow us to:

· concentrate our collective efforts on those activities with the highest risk;

· avoid unnecessary administrative burdens.

The Environment Agency will continue to work with Defra on this through programmes such as the Environmental Permitting Programme. We are also reviewing how we can regulate industry in a more business-like way (e.g. through our Core Regulation Project). We are also aware of the need to work more effectively and are considering what this would mean for us and for those we regulate. The result will feed into future versions of this Plan and associated Action Plans.

3. overview of the waste sector

3.1 Scope of the sector

This Sector Plan covers the ‘processes’ and ‘outputs’ of the waste management industry as shown in Figure 1. Waste producers are responsible for generating its ‘inputs’. Objectives for the management and minimisation of waste are presented within Sector Plans for other industries. The waste management industry increasingly offers waste producers advice and guidance to help improve their resource management and to ensure the better management of wastes.

Figure 1 The Waste Sector

The Environment Agency regulates over 7,000 permitted waste management facilities, the majority of which are operated under the Waste Management Licensing regime. By the end of 2007, some 700 of these sites will have transferred to the PPC regime. This re-permitting exercise has already brought over 300 sites into the PPC regime. We also registered more than 12,000 smaller exempt facilities in 2004, mainly relating to recovery.

We estimate that 434 million tonnes of waste is generated in the UK each year, of which some 200 million tonnes is handled at facilities regulated by the Environment Agency. Most of this waste arises from construction and demolition, municipal, industrial and commercial sources. While the amount of waste landfilled has remained relatively constant over the last few years, recycling and recovery activities have increased substantially.

The amount of municipal waste produced is growing each year but, although the rate of growth has slowed in recent years, it is too early to say whether this is likely to be a long-term trend. Over 85 per cent of the estimated 30.9 million tonnes of municipal waste produced in 2003/04 was generated by householders. Recycling of municipal waste has tripled since 1997, although landfill is still the dominant management route.

Quantities of commercial and industrial waste have declined slightly in recent years. Around 73.2 million tonnes were generated in 2002/03, of which 40 per cent was disposed of to landfill.

Around 4.7 million tonnes of hazardous waste was produced in England and Wales in 2004. A range of treatment technology methods are used and being developed to manage hazardous waste following the substantial reduction in the number of landfill sites able to accept this type of waste.

3.2 Legislative considerations

Waste legislation within the UK is derived from the European regulatory framework.

The Landfill Directive, the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive and the Waste Framework Directives are major legislative drivers within England and Wales, together with waste stream specific directives on end-of-life vehicles (ELVs), packaging and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). A number of targets are set out in regulations and measures to achieve them outlined in the waste strategies for England and Wales.

An international context influences the market value of products and waste streams, and there are regulatory controls on the import and export of wastes. Other policy instruments such as the Landfill Tax, Aggregates Levy and new planning guidance have also shaped the industry.

Regulation drives the market in waste management services and its influence should not be underestimated. Operators require clear rules, with sufficient lead time to develop new infrastructure and operations, and confidence that the rules will be enforced consistently.

3.3 Environmental pressures

The waste management industry in England and Wales is highly regulated to address and reduce the environmental and health impacts of its operations. Detailed research by Defra[7] and its review of England’s Waste Strategy[8] suggest that, under normal operating conditions, the management of waste has only a minimal impact on human health and the environment. However, management failure and illegal activity can result in unacceptable impacts.

· Emissions to air. Emissions to air from waste management facilities include:

- greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide and methane)

- dust

- volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

- micro-organisms

- odour

- combustion gases such as oxides of nitrogen (NOX).

Greenhouse gases are the most important emissions in terms of environmental impact, though emissions of other substances can be significant at a local and site level. Greenhouse gas emissions from different waste management activities vary widely. The total contribution from the sector to total UK greenhouse gas emissions was less than 2 per cent in 2003.

Methane from landfill is the main contributor. Over the past decade the capture of landfill gas and power generation has significantly reduced the quantity of methane emitted from landfills to the atmosphere. But there is potential to further reduce fugitive emissions and to increase the useful energy produced.

Using waste to produce electricity and heat (energy from waste, EfW) displaces greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

· Emissions to water. The reported levels of emissions from waste management facilities have a very small impact on water quality. Controls at landfill sites limit the release of leachate to groundwater or surface water, but discharges to water can occur if normal control systems fail. In many cases, leachate treatment systems are installed to reduce the pollution potential of discharges. As more landfills close in response to Landfill Directive requirements and as sites reach capacity, there will be an increasing need to ensure that potential emissions to groundwater are controlled

· Emissions to land. The UK’s reliance on landfill will decrease as it complies with the progressive requirements of the Landfill Directive. Landfills can provide environmental benefits as they tend to be sited in locations such as quarries, mines and industrial sites that would otherwise remain derelict. After restoration, landfills are often used for agriculture or recreation.