Rubble piled up at a construction and demolition waste management site.
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Key Regulations

There are a number of regulations relating to the management, transport, treatment and disposal of waste. This includes construction and demolition wastes used in construction, or those processed for the production of aggregates.

The UK Waste Regulations system implements various European Directives, including the Waste Framework Directive.

Please refer to NetRegs for a complete overview of the regulations and links to the authoritative text.


Environmental Protection Act 1990, Part II

This Act provides the basis for licensing controls and other provisions aimed at ensuring that waste handling, disposal and recovery options do not harm the environment. It also states that responsibility for waste rests on all parties involved in its management; from the original producer to everybody who handles it up until its full recovery or disposal. To this end it introduced the 'Duty of Care'.
NB: The Waste Management (England and Wales) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006 No. 937) introduce amendments to the Act, including an extension of the definition of industrial waste to include agricultural and mining and quarrying waste, which therefore become controlled wastes.


Environmental Protection (Duty of Care) Regulations 1991, as amended

Anyone who produces, imports, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste from business or industry or acts as a waste broker in this respect has a duty to ensure that any waste produced is handled safely and in accordance with the law. A summary of the obligations can be found on the Duty of Care page. The Regulations have been amended by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 and 2010 to introduce the new environmental permitting terminology.

DEFRA is working on amendments to the Duty of Care regime, with new Regulations expected for late 2010. Some information is available from NetRegs.


Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations 2002 and amendments

The Landfill (England and Wales) Regulations and amendments have been revoked by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations, which now transpose, within others, the requirements of the Landfill Directive (Council Directive 1999/31/EC), which aims to prevent, or to reduce as far as possible, the negative environmental effects of landfill. More information on the classification of landfills and Waste Acceptance Criteria can be found in Regulation of Landfills and the Waste Acceptance Criteria page. Information on taxation can be found in the Landfill Tax page.

Please consult the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 page for more details.


Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations and amendments

The Pollution Prevention and Control (England and Wales) Regulations and amendments have been revoked by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 and 2010, which now transpose, within others, the EU’s Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive in the UK (Council Directive 2008/01/EC).

Please consult the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 page for more details.


Waste Management Licensing Regulations 1994, and amendments
The 1994 Regulations (for England and Wales) and subsequent amendments have been further amended or revoked by the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 and 2010. The Environmental Permitting Regulations introduce a new permitting regime for waste and identify a number of activities which are excluded from requiring a permit or that are exempt from permitting. Further information can be found in the Permitting and Exemptions section.

Please consult the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2010 page for more details.