The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2010/675 introduced a new set of waste exemptions, replacing those in the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations SI 2007/3538.
Paragraph 13 of Schedule 3 to the 2007 Regulations, for example, exempts the manufacture of soil or soil substitutes from waste (including waste from construction or demolition work) from the need to hold an environmental permit, if the manufacturing is carried out either at the place where the waste was produced or where the soil/soil substitute is to be used.
The Environment Agency has issued a position statement that aims to clarify the uncertainty as to whether waste ceases to be waste once a paragraph 13 operation has been carried out, and whether materials could be used for manufacturing soil or soil substitutes on a different site without the need for a permit.
Those activities that were previously registered as exempt under the 2007 Regulations will now be subject to transitional arrangements set out in the 2010 Regulations, which will require operators over the next three and a half years, either to obtain an actual permit or register themselves as exempt under one of the new exemption categories under the 2010 Regulations.
The Environment Agency has confirmed that to meet the terms of the paragraph 13 exemption, the manufacture of a soil/soil substitute incorporating fines must be carried out either where the waste was produced or where the soil/soil substitute is to be used.
The position statement is available at: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/static/documents/Research/PS_001_Manufac_of_agg__soils_v2_June_2010.pdf.
