LEGISLATION UPDATE

1. LEGISLATION UPDATE Tessa Bowering Senior Environment Officer Wessex Area

2. BATTERIES Tessa Bowering Senior Environment Officer Wessex Area

3. Producer Responsibility European Initiative • Batteries Directive September 2006 - Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 came into force on 26th September 2008, The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 came into force on 5th May 2009)

4. BATTERIES: EU Directive • Applies to all types of batteries irrespective of their shape, weight, composition or use, except those used in certain military or space applications • Seeks to improve the environmental performance of batteries and the activities of all those involved in the battery life cycle • Came into force in September 2006 • The Batteries and Accumulators (Placing on the Market) Regulations 2008 – came into force on 26th September 2008. Partially implement the Directive. (Limit the amount of mercury and cadmium in batteries placed on the market).

5. Key Provisions • Restrictions on the use of mercury and cadmium • Labelling requirements for new batteries to aid consumer choice and recycling • 25% collection rate for waste portable batteries to be met by September 2012, rising to 45% by Sept 2016 • Prohibition on the disposal by landfill or incineration of waste industrial and automotive batteries (100% recycling) • Producer responsibility obligations • Recycling efficiencies (to ensure a high proportion of the weight of waste batteries is recycled) • Waste battery treatment standards

6. The Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009 • Implement the waste provisions of the Directive and establish the scope of producer responsibility for batteries in the UK • Require persons placing batteries on the market to register as a producer of batteries and report on waste batteries collected and sent for recycling • Requirements for treatment and recycling of waste batteries

7. Portable Batteries • 25% of portable batteries placed on the market must be collected by 2012 and 45% by 2016. Interim targets have also been set – 10% by 2010 and 18% by 2011. • Producers will meet their responsibilities for collection and recycling by joining a Battery Compliance Scheme (BCS) by 15th October 2009 • Producers who put less than 1 tonne of portable batteries on the market will register but will not have to fund collection, treatment and recycling. • From February 2010 retailers who sell more than 32kgs of household batteries will have to take back these batteries in-store, free of charge when they become waste • The EA will approve and regulate the BCS who must apply for approval by 31 May 2009.

8. Recycling Requirements • Minimum recycling efficiencies have been set for recycling processes: • 65% by average weight of lead-acid batteries • 75% by average weight of nickel-cadmium batteries • 50% by average weight of other waste batteries

9. Battery Compliance Schemes (BCS) • Schemes need to register members annually • Provide quarterly sales returns broken down into the main chemistries for portable batteries and type • The Directive requires a collection network that allows end users to discard portable batteries at an accessible point in their vicinity • Distributors (shops etc.) will be required to take back waste batteries and BCS are likely to have to set up their own collection networks in order to meet their targets. A number of other options for collecting waste batteries such as kerbside collection, collection at CA sites, community drop offs and postal returns.

10. Links with WEEE • From 1 January 2010 batteries will not be included in declarations of weight of electrical and electronic products • Producers will declare the weight of such batteries in their returns on the amount of batteries they have put on the market.

11. Industrial Batteries • Producers must take back waste industrial batteries of any chemistry, on request, from an end user when supplying new industrial batteries. They must also take back FOC waste industrial batteries from end users when the end user is not able to return them to their supplier • Producers of industrial batteries will be required to register with BERR (unless they are members of a BCS as they also put portable batteries on the UK market) • Producers must provide estimated tonnages and the chemistry of industrial batteries placed on the market and which end up as waste in the UK. • Producers must also supply the tonnage they have collected and delivered to an approved reprocessor or exporter. • Prohibition on landfilling of industrial and automative batteries from 1 January 2010

12. Automotive Batteries • Producers must offer take back of waste automotive batteries FOC on request from final holders such as garages, scrapyards and CA sites • Producers must register with BERR • Producers to report to BERR on the tonnage of automotive batteries placed on the UK market and that which they have collected and delivered to an approved reprocessor or exporter

13. HAZARDOUS WASTE

14. Hazardous Waste • Waste materials that are potentially toxic and dangerous to the human and natural environment • Hazardous Waste Regulations (England) 2005 • The List of Wastes (England) Regulations 2005 • Came into force on 16th July 2005 • Amended on 6th April 2009

15. Common Types of Hazardous Waste

16. Definition of Premises Amendment – Reg 5 – “premises” include LAND, any ship and any other means of transport from which a mobile service is operated Factory, Office, Shop, Hospital, School, Doctors, Vets etc. NOT Premises:- Highways, Rail Tracks, Waterways, Lamp Posts, Pylons, AA/RAC Vehicles, Flytipped waste

17. Exemptions from Registration Amendment – Reg 30 Qualifying LimitationAvailable for all premises up to 500kg/year (ships any amount) Amendment – Reg 23 Exempt premises need not be notified to the EA However, consignment notes must be completed for all the above movements of hazardous waste

18. Registration of Premises Registration of hazardous waste producers for a nominal fee :- £28 paper application £23 telephone - Tel 08708 502 858 £18 internet or bulk disc A unique premise code – e.g. ABC123 Annual registration, Code will not change? Registration can be made on behalf of the producer by waste carrier/consignor provider

19. Domestic Premises Domestic waste can be hazardous, but generally exempt from the regulations However, Reg 13 applied to domestic asbestos waste Amendment – Reg 13 – Asbestos Waste Clarifies that occupiers of domestic premises are not subject to the 2005 Regs, but that contractors dealing with asbestos waste are treated as the producer and consignor

20. Domestic Waste Amendment - Separated Domestic Fractions - Regulation 14 and Part 4 – Mixing Haz Waste Makes it clear that separate domestic hazardous waste cannot be mixed at the point of collection or delivery to CA site

21. Amendment Reg 14A - Shop Premises Hazardous waste produced at shop premises by customers of the occupier shall be treated as being produced by the occupier

22. Enforcement - Fixed Penalties Fixed penalty notices for some offences:- failure to register premises removal of waste from premises without a registration or exemption wrong consignment codes or incomplete consignment notes failure by consignee to make quarterly returns failure to supply information £300

23. Hazardous!

24. ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE (PREVENTION AND REMEDIATION) REGULATIONS 2009

25. The Regulations • On 1 March 2009 the Environmental Damage (Prevention and Remediation) Regulations brought into force for England new rules (the Environmental Liability Directive) to force polluters to prevent and repair environmental damage that they have caused - the  ‘polluter pays’ principle. • If you or your business carry out an activity that causes environmental damage you will have to remedy the damage • If there is a risk of damage from your business activities, you must prevent such damage occurring. • Overall, the regulations are likely to be used only for the most serious cases of damage.

26. What is Environmental Damage? • damage to surface or underground water • contamination of land where there is a significant risk to human health • damage to natural habitats and species and protected sites.

27. Who do the regulations affect? • private businesses • farming • manufacturing • construction and demolition • waste management • forestry • public sector – schools, hospitals and government departments or agencies • individuals and voluntary organisations.

28. Roles and Responsibilities: Operators • Take steps to prevent damage or further damage and notify the authority • Provide information and undertake preventative and remedial measures as required by the authority • submit proposals for remediation • Pay costs claimed by the authority in relation to ‘environmental damage’

29. Roles and responsibilities: Authorities • Establish if damage is environmental damage and identify a responsible operator • Serve a remediation notice taking account of any measures proposed by the operator • May take steps to prevent or remedy damage • May require information or action from operators

30. Further Information • Netregs (www.netregs.gov.uk) • Defra (http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/liability/pdf/quick-guide-regs09.pdf) • OPSI (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/uksi_20090153_en_1)

31. Thank You Tessa.bowering@environment-agency.gov.uk Direct dial: 01258 483416 Mobile: 07770 476629