News

Directive 2010/35/EC, on transportable pressure equipment, which aims to improve the safety of transportable pressure equipment approved for inland transport by road and rail.

This is done through providing a legal structure in which equipment can be manufactured, sold and used within the EU and European Economic Area.

Obligations are established for various operators with regard to the:

• common design;
• manufacture; and
• testing and certification standards,

for all transportable pressure equipment.

On 1 July 2011, this Directive will revoke and replace Directive 99/36/EC, on the same subject, which was a first step towards improving transport safety for transportable pressure equipment. However, developments in transport safety mean it is necessary to update certain technical provisions in that Directive.

In addition, Directive 2008/68/EC, on the inland transport of dangerous goods extended the application of certain international agreements to cover national traffic in order to harmonise the conditions under which dangerous goods are transported across the EU. It is therefore necessary to update Directive 99/36/EC to avoid conflicting rules on transportable pressure equipment, particularly relating to conformity requirements, conformity assessment and reassessment procedures.

The Pyrotechnic Articles (Safety) Regulations SI 2010/1554, which began to come into force on 4 July 2010.

They set out the conditions for marketing pyrotechnic articles within the EU, along with:

• distribution rules;
• conformity assessments;
• labelling requirements;
• enforcement provisions; and
• supply prohibitions on certain articles.

As a result, they implement Directive 2007/23/EC, on placing pyrotechnic articles on the market, which aims to ensure the free movement of such articles, whilst protecting the health, public security and safety of consumers and taking into account environmental protection factors. 

These Regulations also revoke various legislation relating to fireworks, including the Fireworks (Safety) Regulations SI 1997/2294.

A senior Northern Ireland coroner has urged Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster to introduce clear legislation following the electrocution of a six-year old who grabbed an 11,000-volt overhead line while climbing a tree. John Leckey said he would call for the minister to liaise with Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSE NI) at the inquest into the death of Tia Nagurski.

Following her death, principal health and safety inspector with the HSE NI, John Wright, told the inquest he had written a report into the incident. Working on behalf of the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in relation to Electricity Supply Regulations, Mr Wright said he visited the scene with a Panel of Inquiry set up by NIE. He commented that the electricity line was at the same level as the top of the trees where the girl had been climbing. A five yearly tree management inspection patrol is carried out on overhead lines by NIE, at which point tree and shrubbing deemed to be hazardous is cut back. A patrol of the area in question was carried out in February 2009, and followed up by a foot patrol three months later. However, the area was not deemed to be an “immediate risk.”

Mr Wright concluded that proposed amendments should be looked at, as current legislation did not give specific instructions. Recent guidance suggested a three-metre gap between power lines and trees was a safe margin.

Roy Coulter, NIE safety group and risk manager, told the inquest that Tia had climbed to the very top of the elder tree and then touched the line. He also confirmed that the trees in that location had been cut by the Housing Executive in 2004. However, he suggested changes in policy should be implemented to remove confusion with regard to tree cutting near overhead lines.

The Government have announced plans to hold a review of existing waste policy in a bid to bring together and accelerate the existing fragmented waste policy in Britain. It is hoped the review will stimulate a shift towards becoming a "zero waste society."

The first signs of this coming to fruition are evident with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs revealing that a new version of the Waste Strategy for England will be published in April 2011. The new strategy is expected to either replace or revise the existing strategy which was launched back in 2007, as a means of providing a policy framework for waste and recycling.

Separate strategies are currently either in place or under consultation for the devolved administrations.

A repatriation process to remove 250,000 tonnes of Irish household and commercial waste, believed to have been illegally dumped in Northern Ireland between 2002 and 2004, was put into motion at the beginning of this month.

A team of 30-tonne capacity trucks have started working daily to remove waste from a site in Slattinagh, Garrison, Co Fermanagh and transfer it to an approved landfill facility in Ballynacarrick, Co Donegal.

After the site is cleared, work will begin on removing around 10,000 tonnes of refuse at a second site located near Trillick, Co Tyrone.

A further 18 sites in Northern Ireland have also been identified by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency as containing illegally dumped municipal and commercial waste from the Republic. It's estimated that the overall cost of the operation will be more than €36 million and will take around five years to complete.

Under an agreement between the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive, all disposal costs of the rubbish, believed to have originated from Cork and Wexford, will be met by the Irish Government. The Northern Ireland authorities will meet 20% of the removal costs.

It is believed that the way the bin collection system works in the Republic was the catalyst for the illegal dumping of waste. In the Republic, contractors are paid to take rubbish away from households, rather than the service being provided by the council. This means contractors get rid of waste as cheap as possible in order to maximise profit, sometimes removing it to the North where landfill charges can be up to €150 cheaper.

Criminal gangs from both sides of the Border were believed to have been involved in the lucrative illegal waste trade, however prosecutions for illegal dumping have focused on the landowners who have allowed dumping on their land as they are easier to identify than the dumpers.

So far, four landowners have been imprisoned and fines of about £800,000 have been handed down, however the Irish Government will have little chance of recouping the estimated €36 million it will have to spend repatriating the waste through fines. Although the waste removed from the 20 sites across the North will be examined in an attempt to establish its origins.

Northern Ireland is still some way behind other parts of the UK, with households recycling less than 30% of waste.

New figures published this month show little improvement on last year’s, with the country recycling or composting 29% of its municipal waste in the first three months of the year – just 0.2% more than during the same period in 2009. This compares to England, which by 2007/08 was already recycling 34.5% of its household waste with Defra claiming the country will hit its 40% target by the end of 2010.

The largely unchanged rate puts Northern Ireland in conflict with the European Landfill Directive, which requires significant improvements in waste management or the prospect of hefty fines.

However in more positive news, the figures reveal that the volume of waste being produced by Northern Ireland appears to be falling – down 2.4% on the same quarter last year. The breakdown of recycled materials shows paper (33%) and green waste (27%) as the most common

Glass made up 9% of recycled waste, electrical goods 6% and cans 2%. The proportion of waste sent for recycling in the current quarter was just over 22%, while for composting it was around 8%.