Page 90 - Xmo Strata - Bulletin Archive

Page 1 of 6

Health, Safety & Environmental Bulletin No 36

M Mott – 12 March 2007

Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005

Background

Regulations

th
The first part of the Hazardous Waste Regulations 2005 came into force on 16 April 2005. This part
states "Where hazardous waste is produced at or removed from, any premises other than exempt
premises, the premises must be notified to the Environment Agency".

th
The second part of the regulations came into force on 16 July 2005 and requires all transport of
hazardous waste to be recorded.

Waste Definition

Hazardous waste is essentially waste that contains hazardous properties that may render it harmful to
human health or the environment. The main hazardous wastes that we deal with are fluorescent lamps
and paint / solvents. However the sites we work on will have various other hazardous wastes that they
will be responsible for disposing of (for instance the disposal of fuel from interceptors).

Mixed Waste

The new regulations make it illegal to mix hazardous waste with either non hazardous waste or other
forms of hazardous waste. All hazardous waste must be kept separate and wherever possible must be
separated if it is mixed. If the hazardous waste cannot be separated from the non-hazardous waste,
then all the waste is classified as hazardous and must be disposed of as hazardous waste. E.g., if
fluorescent lamps are thrown into a skip with general waste, the entire skip will be classified as
hazardous waste and will have to be disposed of as such, this would be very expensive as the number
of land fill sites that are accepting hazardous waste is very small. These regulations are intended to
help increase the amount of waste that is recycled, where wastes are kept separate it is a lot easier to
recycle than having a full skip of mixed waste.

Registration of Premises

All premises must be registered with the Environment Agency unless they are exempt (see below).

Most fuel stations will have to be registered as hazardous waste producers. We have been notified that
Esso have notified all their stations and a list of the unique hazardous site number for each station will
be issued.