Agency quick off the mark

The Environment Agency has launched a consultation on new and revised rules for standardised waste permits in advance of any Government announcement following the waste exemptions review.

Last year the Government consulted on proposals to overhaul the environmental permitting waste exemptions regime. It was suggested that a number of existing exemptions should be replaced with standard permits. However, the Government has yet to make its intentions known in light of responses to the consultation, in particular whether it plans to move certain exempt waste operations into the environmental permitting system.

In the belief that standard rules will be sufficient to manage the risks to human health and the environment from a number of existing exempt waste operations, the Agency has, as a pre-emptive measure, prepared and is consulting on 16 new/revised sets of standard rules and associated risk assessments. These include the:

• spreading of waste, including sewage, on land;
• treatment of land for reclamation, restoration and/or improvement purposes;
• use of waste in construction;
• treatment of waste to produce soil, soil substitutes, road stone and aggregate;
• composting of biodegradable waste;
• storage and treatment of dredgings;
• operation of anaerobic digestion facilities; and
• recovery of scrap metal, including the dismantling of depolluted end of life vehicles.

Further information on the Agency's consultation can be found at www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/library/consultations/107784.aspx.

For more information, see:

• Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2007/3538.