The Environment Agency Announces Major Changes to Waste Exemptions. The Environment Agency has announced its intention to reform the Environmental Permitting Regulations, which will result in significant changes to waste exemptions in 2025. These updates aim to strengthen oversight, reduce misuse, and raise compliance standards across the UK waste sector. Reforming the waste exemptions system…
Stricter Rules Proposed for Battery Treatment and Storage Sites / Facilities The Environment Agency has released draft guidance that could significantly impact operators of battery treatment and storage sites handling waste batteries, including those in the scrap metal and end-of-life vehicle (ELV) sectors. The guidance document, titled Waste Batteries: Appropriate Measures for Permitted Facilities, is…
Landfill Tax Changes: What the 2025 Consultation Means for UK Waste Operators The Government have launched a consultation on landfill tax changes that could have major consequences for waste companies, construction and demolition firms. Launched on 28 April, the consultation proposes scrapping the lower rate of landfill tax and removing key exemptions used in site…
The government plans to remove the lower rate of Landfill Tax by 2030 Overview of the Proposed Landfill Tax Changes The Government is proposing to remove the lower rate of landfill tax and introduce a single, standardised rate by 2030. As part of these landfill tax reforms, the ‘qualifying fines regime’ will be phased out…
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…
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…
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…
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…