DEFRA

Energy from waste: a guide to the debate

This guidance document was originally published in February 2013. The guide has been updated to include a new chapter (chapter 5), which provides details of the Government’s energy from waste policy. Four principles underpin the future policy direction:

• Energy from waste must support the management of waste in line with the waste hierarchy.
• Energy from waste should seek to reduce or mitigate the environmental impacts of waste management and then seek to maximise the benefits of energy generation.
• Government support for energy from waste should provide value for money and make a cost effective contribution to UK environmental objectives in the context of overall waste management and energy goals.; and
• The government will remain technology neutral except where there is a clear market failure preventing a technology competing on a level footing.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY & CLIMATE CHANGE (DECC)

The Green Deal code of practice

DECC has revised the code of practice supporting the Green Deal. This code is now in its third version and details requirements on Green Deal Providers, Green Deal Assessors, or Green Deal Installers and Certification Bodies.

Green Deal Guidance Documents

DECC has revised a number of guidance documents on the Green Deal scheme:

• Household Energy Saving Improvements
• Green Deal: How the Green Deal and Feed-In Tariffs work together
• Green Deal assessment: a guide on what to expect
• What to do after your Green Deal Assessment
• Green Deal: Guide to cashback for energy-saving home improvers
• Green Deal: a guide to consumer protection
• Green Deal guide: How can I check if I'm dealing with a Green Deal authorised trader?
• Green Deal: Quick Guide to Consumer Complaints
• The Green Deal for social housing providers
• The Green Deal for residential landlords
• The Green Deal and prepayment meters
• The Green Deal: a way for owners and tenants to pay for home improvements
• Moving into a Green Deal home: what you need to do

Get help to keep your home warm - the Energy Company Obligation

DECC has revised its guidance on the ECO scheme for persons who may be eligible.

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, INNOVATION & SKILLS (BIS)

WEEE Regulations 2013: government guidance notes

This guidance document has been revised to reflect changes WEEE regime due to the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013. Changes provide further information on products subject to the regulations, the position of small producers of electrical equipment and the option to appoint ‘authorised representatives’.

The revised document is focused on businesses, public and third sector organisations and individuals involved in the sale, purchase and disposal of WEEE.

Collection of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE): code of practice

This document imposes minimum standards on the collection of WEEE. The code has been revised to reflect the implementation of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Regulatory Position Statement 164: Storage of waste sandbags by Local Authorities at temporary collection sites during the flood recovery period.

This statement authorises the temporary storage of waste sandbags at designated collection points without an environmental permit being required, provided that the conditions given are met.

What we do: a brief guide to the work of the Environment Agency

NORTHERN IRELAND ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Water Resource Assessment Flow Data Requirements

Flow data are required to be submitted to support abstraction and impounding licence applications. This document provides guidance on the hydrological information required to for these applications.

River Hydromorphology Assessment Technique - Training Manual

SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

Scottish Marine and Freshwater Science Volume 5 Number 4: Prioritisation of monitoring and research for diadromous fish in the context of Marine/Offshore Renewables

Our Place in Time - The Historic Environment Strategy for Scotland

Director sentenced after canal pollution

A director of a Derbyshire-based recycling firm has been fined and given a custodial sentence after a fire resulted in the pollution of the Erewash Canal.

Arcwood recycling operated a wood recycling yard. This initially operated under a waste management exemption. A full environmental permit was applied for and received on advice of the Environment Agency.

Following the appointment of a new director in March 2012, Environment Agency officers raised concerns regarding inadequate management systems in operation at the site. In April 2012 officers identified that the volume of wood held was interfering with the functioning of the site and that there was inadequate segregation of piles. These issues remained in June 2012. The Environment Agency issued a compliance assessment report in July, identifying that the permit was being breached as material was being stored for more than three months.

Between March and July 2012 the owners of the site received complaints regarding the amount of wood stored, which was damaging the perimeter fence.

In September 2012 a fire occurred. Fire fighting continued for nine days, generating a substantial volume of run-off. Firefighting run-off entered the Erewash Canal. Fish kills were identified along a 6km stretch of the canal. The Environment Agency spent £200,000 remediating the canal.

In October 2012 the company was identified burning wooden pallets and the Environment Agency issued a suspension notice against the site’s environmental permit.

Although the director was formally interviewed in January 2013, a request to interview him personally in June 2013 was not answered.

A Regulation 60 notice under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 was submitted, requiring the company to provide waste transfer notes and a site diary was not complied with.

In court the director pleaded guilty to charges relating to the pollution of the canal. These charges were brought under Regulations 12(1)(b), 38(1)(a) and 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010. The company was fined £8,000 with a further £7,500 in costs. The director was given a 10 month custodial sentence and disqualified from being a director for 8 years.

• Regulation 12(1)(b) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 requires that persons must not cause or knowingly permit a water discharge activity or groundwater activity unless authorised by a suitable environmental permit.
• Regulation 38(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 makes it an offence to contravene Regulation 12(1).
• Regulation 41(1) of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 makes the body corporate and employees responsible punishable for offences that occurred with the consent, connivance or neglect of the employee.
   

Environmental permit suspended for Nottinghamshire waste recycling plant

An environmental permit held by Nottinghamshire Recycling Ltd for their site on Shireoaks Road in Worksop has been suspended.

The Environment Agency has taken the decision to issue a suspension notice against the permit due to the ongoing risk of serious pollution as a result of fires at the site.

The Environment Agency previously notified the company regarding the risk of fire. A compliance notice was issued following a fire in February 2014 as the regulator did not deem the site’s management systems, accident and incident management plans, procedures and security procedures adequate to prevent fires and resulting pollution.

Although the initial notice included a deadline of 17 March 2014 for compliance, a further fire on 9 March 2014 lead to a suspension notice being issued as the continued operation of the site presented a continued risk of serious pollution.

While the suspension notice remains in force, no waste may be legally accepted or treated at the site.

• Regulation 36 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 empowers the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales to issue enforcement notices where an operator has contravened or is likely to contravene an environmental permit condition.
• Regulation 37 of the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 empowers the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales to issue suspension notices. Under this Regulation permits may be suspended where regulators consider that the operation of the permitted facility poses a risk of serious pollution, whether or not this risk is a result of a contravention of a permit condition.
   

Businessman receives prison sentence for waste offences

A director of a Lanarkshire recycling company has received a prison term after continued breaches of the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011. This is the first custodial sentence in a SEPA reported case.

SEPA officers identified that STUD Recycling Limited’s site in Airdrie was illegally depositing, storing and treating waste without an appropriate waste management licence. SEPA inspected the site in February 2012 following two complaints from the public. The inspection found that over 15,000 tyres were being stored, significantly more than the 1,000 permitted by the exemption provided under the Waste Management Licensing (Scotland) Regulations 2011.

An additional inspection on 23 May 2012 identified that further waste was now stored, including approximately 45,000 tyres. On 29 May 2012 a notice was issued against the director of STUD Recycling under Section 59 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, requiring that the unlawfully deposited waste was removed by 31 July 2012.

SEPA returned to the site in August and November and found that all of the previously identified waste remained on site.

On 5 March 2014 the director was sentenced to a six month prison term and the company was fined £12,000 for breaches of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 as follows:

• Depositing or knowingly causing or permitting the deposit of waste without a waste management licence, in breach of Section 33(1a)(a) and Section 33(6);
• Keeping waste without a waste management licence, contrary to Section 33(1b)(b)(i) and Section 33(6); and
• Treating or knowingly causing or permitting the treatment of waste not in accordance with a waste management licence, contrary to Section 33(1b)(b) and Section (33)(6).