Over the past two years, and with the support of the metal
recycling trade associations, the Environment Agency has
been
clamping down on unlicensed and non-exempt sites.
Licences issued under the Act are known as "Metal Recycling
Site
Licences". Licence conditions include security fencing,
covered storage requirements, road and storage surfacing and
drainage,
sign and notice boards and other conditions.
A key element of the licensing and control system is Duty of
Care.
As a business, you have a duty to ensure that any waste
you produce is handled safely and in accordance with the law.
This
is the ‘Duty of Care’ and it applies to anyone who
produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of
controlled
waste from business or industry or acts as a waste
broker in this respect. This involves the waste producer
transferring
a document to the waste disposer containing all
relevant details about the waste.
But the practicalities of always
obtaining this document and
the fact that some suppliers might choose to go to merchants
who did not enforce the rules
rigorously prompted a change of
heart on the part of the government in agreement with the
Environment Agency which enforces
the rules.
A concession was struck that the Environment Agency would not
fully enforce the Duty of Care as far
as the non-ferrous metal
recycling industry in particular is concerned.
This concession was welcomed by the British
Secondary Metals
Association.
The Duty of Care rules apply to materials whether they are
destined for recycling
or disposal and the Environment Agency
has said that the duty of care is the piece of legislation that
links waste controls
together linking waste with carriers.
There is now flexibility in the way the regulations are
implemented for generally
small loads of material. The Agency
has given guidance saying that duty of care must be understood
as a concept that
requires all reasonable precautions to be
taken so that waste, including metals, in the care of a
business or carrier
doesn't escape and is carried in a secure
container.
When it is transferred to a registered broker, carrier, a
business
registered exempt and others there must be a
description of that waste.
The agency accepts that it is clearly
impractical to have a
transfer note for every container of non-ferrous material, and
if the way the notes are used allows
the next person in the
chain to be able to know what it is and handle it properly then
the aim of the duty of care is
in a large part being achieved.
Following the agreement with the British Secondary Metals
Association earlier this
year, the Agency will not generally
take action especially as its resources have been focused on
getting unlicensed
or unregistered metal recycling sites into
the licensing and exemption system.
The concessions on the duty of
care apply to transactions where
the total quantity of scrap metal being transferred does not
exceed 1,500 kilogrammes.
The transaction may cover a number of
different metals but the total weight of the transfer must not
be greater than
1,500 kg. This means that if the transfer
weight of metals that are waste exceeds the 1,500 kg limit,
then the waste
transfer note must contain all the details as in
the regulations.
About The Author: Alasdair Meldrum is founder
and director of
Albion Environmental Ltd. Specialising in providing training
and consultancy services to to waste management
and environment
industry across the UK.
http://www.albion-environmental.co.uk
