Waste Classification and Assessment - Technical Guidance WM3

This is a result of several changes to the law.

The changes include:

amendments to the List of Waste (or European Waste Catalogue)
a major revision of hazardous properties, and
the adoption of the a new system of chemical classification

As a result, we must update our guidance on waste classification.

What is changing and why?

The assessment and classification of Waste is based upon - The List of Waste decision (2000/532/EC) and Annex III of the Waste Directive (2008/98/EC).

These in turn rely on chemical legislation for information on chemicals - Dangerous Substances Directive (67/548/EC), and Dangerous Preparations Directive (1999/45/EC).

This chemical legislation is replaced by the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (CLP) (2008/1272/EC). This introduces a new system of chemical classification based on hazard classes, categories and statement codes (rather than risk phrases and categories of danger).

Annex III of the Waste Directive has been revised to:

amend hazardous properties to align with the CLP, and
provide hazardous waste criteria based on hazard statement codes

The List of Waste, or European Waste Catalogues, has also been revised to:

align with the CLP and Annex III,
include criteria for persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and
make amendments arising from a review of the List itself

What are we consulting on?

We have to update current guidance on waste classification and assessment to align with these changes.

The current guidance is Technical Guidance WM2. We have updated this to include the legal changes and create a revised document that is ‘Technical Guidance WM3’. This consultation is on the changes we have made to do this.

The main areas of change include:

Chapter 2 that provides the framework for assessment
Appendix A that contains the changes to the list of waste, and
Appendix B that contains information to help find the classification of a chemical
Appendix C that contains the new criteria for hazardous properties

We are not consulting on:

the parts of the existing guidance that remain unchanged, or
the legislation that requires these changes

We want your views

We think that this consultation will be of particular interest to anyone who has responsibility for waste. This includes businesses that produce waste, companies that collect, recycle, recover or dispose of waste, consultants, brokers, and trade associations.

We want to hear your thoughts, comments and opinions on the changes we have made to the areas of the guidance outlined above.

How to respond

This consultation will start on the 1st November 2014 and will run for a period of 13 weeks until the 31st January 2015.

This is a joint regulators document and the EA are hosting the consultation and responses for Wales.

You can view the consultation documents and questions on the Environment Agency website, where you will find instructions on submitting your response on line or via email and post.