David Alcock is a senior environmental consultant specialising in waste permitting and regulatory compliance.
Environmental Permitting – a new record? As you all know, environmental permitting has been in a shocking state since Covid, with permits routinely taking up to 12 months and occasionally longer. So it was with real surprise that we received a permit on behalf of a client just over 10 weeks after submission. We submitted…
Smaller metal recyclers brace for “challenges” of EA permit overhaul. The BMRA has launched a survey to garner the feelings of its members who operate under the T9 exemption which is facing the cut. The prospect of the withdrawal of the T9 exemption was first mooted back in 2018 but as yet no firm date…
Changes to Waste Exemptions You may remember our old post from 2023 (Waste Exemption Changes to Prevent Crime in Waste Sector – AC Environmental) and our more recent post from January of this year when the Agency introduced us to the coming changes to the waste exemptions regime. The changes were drastic, including removal of…
What are the changes to the new Standard Rules permits? Change to Qualifications? As you will know from our previous post on this topic, the Environment Agency introduced eight new Standard Rules permits which have replaced a range of old Standard Rules permits effective from 18th December 2024. One question that this raised, which was…
Changes to permits. In our post of 7th January we highlighted the changes to Standard Rules Permits. The principle change we saw was to the definition of a building. Many sites have buildings that are three sided but the new definition requires a building to be fully enclosed with doors as small as possible. This…
Waste Exemption Changes? You may remember our old post from 2023 when the Agency introduced us to the coming changes to the waste exemptions regime. The changes were drastic, including removal of the scrap metal T9 exemption and major changes to the S2 storage of waste exemption. Another big issue was the change that meant…
Changes to Standard Rules Permits introduced. The Environment Agency have introduced changes to a set of new Standard Rules permits to streamline and tighten up on Standard Rules permitting. The new Standard Rules permit for general waste treatment is SR2022 no4, SR2022 No 4: non-hazardous waste recycling with asbestos, hazardous batteries, cable and WEEE storage…
An interesting point this, and an all too common problem. We’ve had sites threatened with enforcement action from regulators that have been operating for decades, one even from 1940, but new housing leads to complaints and campaigns and costs for the operator. ESA says waste sites hit by nearby housebuilding | MRW
Waste Exemption Changes to Prevent Crime in Waste Sector Changes to the waste exemptions regime will protect legitimate waste industry companies. This light-touch style of regulation allows for the registration of some low-risk, small-scale waste activities. However, we know that some waste exemptions have been frequently used by unscrupulous operators. This is to conceal unlawful…
Defra plans to make digital waste tracking mandatory beginning in April 2025. They have stated that this would provide a full view of where waste generated in the UK ended up and would help more effective regulation. There would also be fewer possibilities for waste criminals since regulators would have access to information about…