GovWire

Waste facility operators in England and Wales should check whether The Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 will apply to them from October 2024.

This guidance will:

• help you determine if your facility qualifies as a materials facility
• inform you of any sampling, measuring, recording and reporting requirements that apply

Scotland and Northern Ireland will have their own regulations or codes of practice.

The amended regulations make changes to:

• the type of facilities that must meet the regulations and may be required to sample incoming and outgoing waste material
• the type of waste material covered by the sampling requirements
• the frequency at which incoming and outgoing waste material needs to be sampled
• the categories that incoming and outgoing materials need to be sampled, measured and reported against
• the data that facilities must record and report to the regulator

The sampling weights, frequencies, categories, recording and reporting requirements in this guidance are statutory requirements.

Which materials facilities are in scope

From October 2024, many waste facilities will be required to act under the regulations for the first time. The amended regulations bring into scope facilities which receive single waste streams, and facilities which consolidate waste material into bulk quantities. You will be required to self-assess whether you are a Materials Facility (MF) under the regulations.

Your facility (or part of your facility) may be classed as a MF if you:

• hold a permit under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016
• receive and handle waste classed as waste material
• consolidate waste material into bulk quantities from multiple suppliers - for example, bulking or transfer stations
• sort incoming waste material into specified output materials, such as aluminium cans or cardboard

Your facility (or part of a facility) will not be considered a MF if:

• you only receive waste material from a single supplier and do not separate the material into specified output materials
• it is provided or arranged by a waste disposal authority (WDA) under section 51(1)(b) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (1990 Act) to allow residents in its area to deposit their waste. For example, a household waste recycling center
• your facility solely undertakes the processing or sorting of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), waste batteries or accumulators. Where these activities are undertaken in part of your facility only, this part of the facility will not be considered a MF.
• your facility solely undertakes the processing and sorting of residual waste. Where these activities are undertaken in part of your facility only, this part of the facility will not be considered a MF

Examples of materials facilities

Facilities likely to be considered MFs include:

• materials recovery facilities (MRFs) sorting household dry recyclables
• commercial and industrial waste facilities that receive waste material to consolidate or sort into specified output materials
• waste transfer stations (WTS) that receive waste material to consolidate or sort into specified output materials
• facilities receiving and sorting single streams such as paper and card
• facilities consolidating waste material received from 2 or more suppliers into bulk outputs

Facilities not likely to be considered MFs include:

• facilities such as commercial and industrial MRFs that consolidate and sort commercial and industrial wastes, unless the commercial waste meets the definition of waste material
• MRFs or parts of MRFs sorting only residual waste (dirty MRFs)
• mechanical biological treatment (MBT) facilities, unless they accept material that meets the definition of waste material and undertake MRF operations on part of the site
• refuse derived fuel (RDF) including solid recovered fuel (SRF) production facilities
• MRFs sorting materials from construction and demolition waste

What counts as waste material

The material you receive is likely to be considered waste material under the regulations if it meets the following criteria:

• its from a household source or its from a non-household source and is similar to household waste in nature or composition
• it was separately collected for the primary purpose of preparing for reuse or recycling.
• its a single kind of material (a single stream) or multiple materials mixed together (a multiple stream)
• it contains one or more material types including glass, metal, paper, card, plastic, or fibre-based composite materials

What counts as specified output material

You may be producing specified output material if you sort the incoming waste into separate waste material streams.

These outputs may include single or multiple streams and include any or all of glass, metal, paper, card, plastic and fibre-based composite material.

Items that would normally be removed before sorting the waste are not considered specified output material for example, large or heavy items that could damage sorting equipment or impact the sorting process.

What counts as a supplier

The following may be considered suppliers to your facility:

• a waste collection authority (WCA), including where the WCA outsources their waste collection functions under section 45(1)(a) or (b) of the 1990 Act to another organisation
• the operator of another MF who transfers waste material to your facility from their facility
• if not a WCA or an operator of a MF, a person or organisation who has collected the waste material and delivered it to your facility
• if not a WCA or an operator of a MF and the collector is not known, a person or organisation who has delivered the waste materials to your facility

Where WCA waste, collected under section 45(1)(a) or (b) of the 1990 Act, is sent to a MF via a waste transfer station, that is not a MF under the regulations, the supplier is the WCA. This includes where the WCA outsources their waste collection functions under section 45(1)(a) or (b) of the 1990 Act to another organisation.

Where waste material is received from facilities such as household waste recycling centres, that are not defined as a MF under the regulations, the supplier is the organisation who has collected the waste material and delivered it to the MF.

Where waste is received from 2 separate MFs (as defined in the amended regulations) with the exact same operator, the supplier would be the same for both MFs.

Assessing whether you are a materials facility

You should first check if you receive waste material. If you do not, you are likely not a MF.

If you receive waste material, then consider whether you prepare the incoming waste material for recycling or reuse. This includes sorting the waste material into specified output materials or consolidating waste material from multiple suppliers into common bulked quantities. If you do either, you are likely a MF.

You are probably not a MF if both the following apply:

• only consolidate waste material from a single supplier into bulk
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