Standard Rules Consultation No.21

Results updated 15 Sep 2020

Introduction

We consulted about 3 new standard rules permits, which are for waste operators who carry out the treatment of:

• waste mattresses for recovery
• waste paper, cardboard and plastic for recovery
• waste tyres for recovery

Currently you can register a waste exemption for these activities. However, the Government may change the law to require operators of these kinds of waste sites to have an environmental permit. We are preparing for this by developing these standard permits.

Within the consultation we have also included minor revisions to existing standard rules sets.

 

How we ran the consultation

We shared a pre-consultation draft of the new standard rules permits with key trade associations in Autumn 2019. Their comments helped us develop the rules on which we formally consulted.

We ran the formal online public consultation on our Citizen Space website for 15 weeks, from 21 October 2019 to 31 January 2020.

 

Summary of key findings and actions we will take

Proposed new standard rules for mattresses – SR2019 No 4

You told us that the proposed waste quantity limits were too low to be viable. We will raise the limits to:

• 4,000 tonnes per annum
• 80 tonnes or 2,500 mattresses for the maximum quantity of waste in treatment or awaiting treatment
• 260 tonnes at any one time

We will also increase the maximum waste storage duration to 3 months and add waste code 04 02 22.

 

Proposed new standard rules for paper, card and plastic – SR2019 No 5

You told us that the waste quantity limits are too low to be viable. We will raise the limits to:

• 120,000 tonnes per annum
• 2,400 tonnes at any one time

We will also increase the maximum waste storage duration to 3 months and add waste codes 19 12 01 and 19 12 04.

You told us that our proposed requirement to unload loose waste and to load it in a building will place significant costs on businesses, to the extent that many sites will become nonviable. We will remove this requirement, but will add operating techniques that require litter control infrastructure around designated loading and unloading areas.

 

Proposed new standard rules for tyres – SR2019 No 6

You told us that the waste quantity limits are too low to be viable. We will raise the limits to:

• 5,000 tonnes per annum
• 100 tonnes at any one time

We will change the rules to allow manual sorting of tyre casings outside the building. We will also expand the retreading activity to ’cleaning, repair, re-grooving and retreading’.

 

Proposed changes to standard rules SR2008 No 12 and SR2008 No 13

Our proposals to add 2 new permitted waste types (tyres and mixed construction and demolition waste) were unanimously supported. We will make these changes to the 2 rules sets.

 

Proposed changes to rules set SR2015 No 18

The proposed change to add storage of intact catalytic converter storage to the rules set was unanimously supported.

There were mixed views on the proposed change to remove oil filters and brake pads from the list of permitted waste types. These wastes may be produced at sites through the dismantling process where they form part of the end of life vehicle. However, the data we have demonstrates that these waste types are not being accepted as separate waste types. Therefore they do not need to be specified in the rules set as a permitted waste type.

We will remove these waste types from the standard rules set. This is consistent with the approach we have taken for similar rules sets.

 

Proposed changes to standard rules sets SR2008 No 20, SR2011 No 3, SR2012 No 14, SR2015 No 13, SR2015 No 17 and SR2015 No 18

Our proposals to change the interpretation of waste motor vehicle in the rules sets were supported. We will proceed with making these changes to the rules sets.

 

Next Steps

We have published our consultation summary report. We will now publish the new standard rules and amended standard rules on the GOV.UK website

Where appropriate, we will make the new standard rules sets available ahead of the waste exemption changes.

Individuals who wish to follow up their responses, or points made within this document, in more detail are welcome to contact us via

Email: wastetreatment@environment-agency.gov.uk

Files:

• Consultation summary report - Standard Rules no 21, 126.1 KB (PDF document)

Links:

• Standard Rules Consultation No. 21 - Response Document

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.