Out-Law News 1 min. read
23 Jul 2012, 4:51 pm
The amendments were made in response to a judicial review claiming that the previous regulations, which allowed for co-mingled collection and later separation, did not reflect the requirements of the European Commission's revised Waste Framework Directive. The High Court adjourned judicial review proceedings in December to allow time for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to amend the wording.
The revised Waste Framework Directive will, from 2015, impose a duty on collectors to keep waste paper, metal, plastic and glass separate where this is "necessary to ensure that waste undergoes recovery operations" in accordance with its provisions. However, collectors will be exempt from the regulations if they can prove that their approach will achieve certain quality standards, or if establishing a separate collection system is not possible.
In its response to a consultation (27-page / 226KB PDF) on the changes, Defra acknowledged that its original draft "did not accurately reflect" the requirements of the Directive.
"Our intention remains to accurately reflect the qualifications contained in [the Directive]," it said. "However, our attempts to provide greater clarity on the meaning of these qualifications has resulted in challenge, and not achieved the intended outcome of assisting those subject to the obligation, and others, to understand what is required of them. As such, we have decided not to pursue this more interpretative approach to transposition. Instead we will revert more closely to the language of the Directive."
The Directive states that separate collection should take place where it is "technically, environmentally and economically practicable" to do so. Defra intends to consult on what is meant by the terms as part of proposed guidance "in the coming months", it said, drawing on the European Commission's own recently-published guidance.
Environmental expert Helen Peters of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the amendments would "hopefully allow local authorities and waste management companies to move forward with providing workable solutions" for waste collection and recovery.
"Defra's approach to implementing the requirements of the revised Directive has not, however, received universal support," she added. "It is not yet clear whether the judicial review by the Campaign for Real Recycling on this matter will proceed any further - only time will tell if the qualification to the legal duty on separate collection where it is technically, environmentally and economically practicable to do so is sufficiently clear to enable the recycling and waste recovery sector to move forward without further legal challenges."
The revised regulations will come into force on 1 October and apply to both household and commercial or industrial waste in England and Wales.
