Guidance for the Recovery and Disposal of Hazardous and Non-Hazardous Waste (link)
This guidance has been produced by the Environment Agency for England and Wales and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service (EHS). Together these are referred to as “the Regulator” throughout this document. Its publication follows consultation with industry, government departments and non-governmental organisations.
Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) is a regulatory system that employs an integrated approach to control the environmental impacts of certain industrial activities. It involves determining the appropriate controls for industry to protect the environment through a single permitting process. To gain a permit, operators will have to show that they have systematically developed proposals to apply the best available techniques (BAT) and meet certain other requirements, taking account of relevant local factors.
This guidance for delivering the PPC (IPPC) Regulations in this sector is based on the draft BAT Reference document BREF produced by the European Commission. The BREF is the result of an exchange of information between member states and industry. The quality, comprehensiveness and usefulness of the draft BREF is acknowledged. This guidance is designed to complement the BREF and is cross-referenced to it throughout. It takes into account the information contained in the draft BREF and lays down the indicative standards and expectations in the UK (England and Wales and Northern Ireland). The reader is advised to have access to the BREF.
The aims of this Guidance are to:
– provide a clear structure and methodology for operators to follow to ensure they address all aspects of the PPC Regulations and other relevant regulations
– minimise the effort by both operator and regulator in the permitting of an installation by expressing the BAT techniques as clear indicative standards
– improve the consistency of applications by ensuring that all relevant issues are addressed
– increase the transparency and consistency of regulation by having a structure in which the operator’s response to each issue, and any departures from the standards, can be seen clearly and which enables applications to be compared
To assist operators in making applications, separate, horizontal guidance is available on a range of topics such as waste minimisation, monitoring, calculating stack heights and so on.
Source: EA.