Supplementary memorandum by the Environment
Agency and WRAP
THE WASTE
PROTOCOLS PROJECT
Creating Quality Protocols for commercial waste
streams
The Waste Protocols Project aims to cut red
tape and encourage the re-use of waste materials.
The project is reviewing a number of waste materials
to see whether, when certain requirements are met, they can be
re-used by business without the need for waste management controls.
Uncertainty over the point at which waste is
fully recovered and ceases to be waste has meant that some materials
have continued to be controlled under the EU Waste Framework Directive.
Many of these materials are currently disposed to landfill.
The Waste Protocols Project was set up to provide
certainty to business on the End of Waste, to support the drive
to reduce the amount of materials being sent to landfill unnecessarily
and to increase the use of waste as a resource.
A joint Environment Agency and WRAP (Waste &
Resources Action Programme) initiative, the project is run in
collaboration with industry and funded by Defra.
For each waste material, a Technical Advisory
Group has been established and members include WRAP, the Environment
Agency and industry. Meanwhile, an Advisory Board, with an independent
chairman, has been set up for Trade Association representatives
to provide guidance on what materials should be included and whether
the project outputs are meeting business expectations.
What will be produced?
For each of the waste materials being reviewed,
we aim to produce either:
— a Quality Protocol which clearly
sets out the steps that must be taken for the waste to become
a product or material that can be re-used by business without
the need for waste management controls and can be safely marketed
and sold as a product in its own right, whilst protecting human
health and the environment and without undermining the objectives
of the Waste Framework and Water Framework Directive, or
— a regulatory position statement,
which clearly informs the business community of what regulatory
obligations they must fulfil to use the processed waste material.
What waste materials are included?
We are looking at the following waste materials:
|
| — Segregated biodegradable wastes
| — Blast furnace slag (BFS) |
| — Wood | — Paper sludge ash (PSA)
|
| — Waste cooking oil | — Uncontaminated topsoil
|
| — Flat glass | — Steel slag
|
| — Tyre-derived rubber material |
— Contaminated soils |
| — Pulverised fuel ash (PFA) | — Incinerator bottom ash (IBA)
|
| — Non-packaging plastics | — Waste plasterboard
|
| |
What's been achieved so far?
|
| Material | Consultation
| Publication |
|
| Segregated biodegradable wastes (compost) |
| Draft Quality Protocol published (March 2007)
|
| Segregated biodegradable wastes (anaerobic digestion)
| Consultation closed Q2 2008. |
|
| Wood | | Regulatory position statement published (October 2007)
|
| Waste cooking oil derived biodiesel | Consultation completed Q1 2008.
| Draft Quality Protocol due for publication (July 2008)
|
| Flat glass | Consultation completed Q1 2008.
| Draft Quality Protocol due for publication (July 2008)
|
| Tyre-derived rubber material | Consultation completed Q1 2008.
| |
| Pulverised fuel ash (PFA) | TBC
| |
| Non-packaging plastics | Consultation completed Q1 2008.
| |
| Blast furnace slag (BFS) |
| Blast Furnace Slag has been deregulated and is now treated as a by-product (August 2007)
|
| Paper sludge ash (PSA) | TBC
| |
| Uncontaminated topsoil | TBC
| |
| Steel slag | TBC |
|
| Contaminated soils | TBC |
|
| Incinerator bottom ash (IBA) | TBC
| |
| Waste plasterboard (gypsum) | TBC
| |
|
| |
|
What are the potential benefits?
Businesses tell us that materials that remain under waste
regulatory control are difficult to recover and market. Markets
are resistant to the use of waste materials. Once they lose the
waste label and can be marketed as quality materials, new business
opportunities can be exploited.
Early indications from the financial impact assessments,
which were developed using market predictions from industry, suggest
that over the next 10 years the first eleven Quality Protocols
could see the following possible business and environmental benefits:
|
| Metric | First 11 Protocols
|
|
| Waste diverted from landfill | 17m tonnes
|
| Carbon savings (CO2) | 1.5 m tonnes
|
| Virgin raw material savings | 15.5 m tonnes
|
| Water conservation | No estimates
|
| Hazardous material reduction | 100,000 tonnes
|
| Cost savings to business | £407m
|
| Increased sales to business | £280m
|
|
| |
The methodology to calculate these savings has followed Treasury
Guidance and is being independently reviewed.
July 2008
| 
