Legislation
Who chose all of the Legislation
The government did in order to stop waste going to UK landfill.
In Europe as a whole they currently recycle around 50% of all lamps. In Scandinavia (where many lamps are made) they recycle, would you believe it, 80% of their lamps.
Despite rises month on month in the UK we currently only recycle 5% of our lamps. But this will change right now!
Why are lamps hazardous waste?
Lamps are given hazardous classification because one single fluorescent tube can contaminate up to 30,000 litres of water. Think of how many lamps you use and then consider the damage you could cause to the environment.
Choose Lampcare and have no more sleepless nights. Why put off when one single phone call can banish your concerns for good?
Environmental Protection Act 1990 – section 34 Duty of Care
The Environmental Duty of Care places a legal obligation on the producers of Controlled Waste.
To prevent another person committing an offence of depositing, disposing or recovery of controlled waste without a waste management license. – This means that controlled waste must be transferred only to authorised bodies i.e. licensed waste carriers, holders of waste management licenses.
That a written description is transferred between the two parties when waste is transferred this referred to Controlled Waste Transfer Note and must be retained by both parties for 2 years.
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The Control of Pollution (amendment) Regulations 1989
Requires that anyone transporting waste, which is not their own waste must register with the Environment Agency this is simple to do and costs approx £117 for three years.
The advice from the EA Licensing officer is –
Electrical contractors who have contracts in place with their clients for the supply of new lamps and the removal lamps from the clients sites could argue that the ownership of the lamps is retained by the Electrical contractor. Under this situation the Electrical contractor is legally allowed to transport his own waste without a being a licensed waste carrier.
The Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994
Any site where waste is deposited or stored other than the site where it is produced should be licensed under the above regulations. However there are exemptions available under certain situations.
Schedule 3 - Exemption 40- (1) allows
The storage of non-liquid waste at any place other than the premises where it is produced if-
It is stored in a secure container or containers, does not at any time exceed 50 cubic metres in total and is not kept for a period longer than 3 months;
The person storing the waste is the owner of the container or has the consent of the owner;
The place where it is being stored is not a site designed or adapted for the reception of waste with a view to its being disposed of or recovered elsewhere; and
Such storage is incidental to the collection or transportation of the waste.
Regulation 17 (3) Exemptions from waste management licensing listed above does not apply to special wastes.
Whilst this exemption could be applied to electrical contractors currently it is unlikely that it will be allowed when the Special Waste Regulations are renewed later this year when fluorescent lamps will become special waste.
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The Landfill Directive
At the end of 2002 and during early 2003 the government tried to curb the quantity of waste that we send to landfill. After categorising landfills between Inert, Non Hazardous and Hazardous the UK currently has 250 sites that can accept hazardous lamp waste. The next stage is to dramatically reduce this further. Since July 16th 2004 there are only 10 UK special waste sites and this has caused huge problems for anyone considering using a system whereby lamp waste can be accepted. This has driven recycling figures up beyond all expectations.
UK Special Waste Regulations
Introduced in 2004 and already we now have guarantees that lamps containing mercury and all gas discharge lamps are going to be given “Special Waste” categorisation.
This legislation identifies lamps containing mercury as hazardous waste. This means that these products must be disposed of in a manner that deals with the hazardous substance. Only around 10 landfill sites throughout the UK will be licensed to accept such waste and each will have strict toxic contamination levels set by the Environment Agency (EA). As mercury accumulates it is unlikely that these sites will allow significant quantities of fluorescent lamps (mercury) to be dumped. It will also cost the disposer a very high price to use these dedicated landfill locations and would therefore prove uneconomic.
The WEEE Directive
Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment Directive. Passed in February 2003 and effective fromAugust 2004. It sets a target of 80% recycling of all UK lamps containing mercury. Currently in the UK only 5% of lamps are being recycled and the remaining 95 million are now to be tackled. The directive insists that that the mercury content in a lamp is treated and therefore can only be done by distilling the phosphor for 14-16 hours, which means recycling, is the only option for end of life lamps. There may be an introduction of a “visible fee” from the producers who are now responsible for providing a solution for lamps. The producers current proposals are to charge a small fee when lamps are purchased so that domestic waste from households can take the lamp to a Civic Amenity site at their council (who generally only permit householders to deposit waste) and for no extra fee they will take this waste stream and pass it on to the recycling companies. In the case of businesses this “visible fee” will only offer a contribution towards the recycling costs and will not for example pay anything towards the collection of lamps from your sites or the containers, which the lamps are stored in. Additional arrangements or existing arrangements will provide this service.
The RoHS Directive
Restriction of Hazardous Substances (Effective from August 04). Already passed and it bans the substance that makes our competitors cringe, the mercury. Lampcare's in house distiller was purposely bought and installed to comfortably control this problem for our clients. All of the phosphor in lamps collected by Lampcare will be distilled in-house (so you can visit and carry out a waste trail audit for your duty of care inspection) and the mercury is returned to industry for reuse.
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