Waste exemptions - preparing now for changes in 2025

The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) are proposing to make fairly significant changes to their waste exemptions. If you operate some or all of your activities under exemptions these changes are likely to affect your operations.

Waste exemptions allow operators to carry out low risk waste operations without having an environmental permit in place. Operators instead register their intention to carry out specified waste operations under an exemption and agree to comply with the requirements listed in the exemption.

The proposed changes to exemptions are focussed on the waste exemptions, which in the view of the regulators, are most commonly abused.

If you rely on low-risk waste positions to undertake any of your waste operations some of these will be incorporated into waste exemptions or withdrawn. The EA’s page on Low Risk Waste Positions can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/environmental-permits-low-risk-waste-positions

Timetable for change and legal implications

It is expected that the proposed changes will be incorporated into the Environment Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations in 2025.

To make early planning easier, official information has been published ?Waste Exemptions - Getting ready for change ?

Further guidance and information can be found in - The Supplementary Government Response and the Reforming Waste Exemptions Annex;

What do I need to do?

Operators of waste activities that currently operate under exemptions will need to review the proposed changes and determine if they are able to continue to operate using an exemption, if they will need to apply for an environmental permit, or decide if they will cease operating.

You should review the exemptions you hold and decide if you still need them. If you no longer require them, you can deselect them. This can be done here and here.

You can operate under existing exemption conditions - or renew them - until the end of the transition period. However, on the transition date, if you cannot comply with the new exemption conditions and still want to operate your activity, you will need to make an application for an environmental permit. Transition periods can be found in the above link, ‘Getting ready for change’.

Some of the main changes affecting Operators

• The proposed changes will mean Operators will need to retain records showing compliance with their registered exemption/s.
• ?Some waste codes which were previously included within exemptions will be removed, corrected, or be subject to further clarification.
• ?Within 6 months of the date the changes are brought into EPR, if you operate a waste activity using an exemption on or next to a permitted waste operation this will no longer be allowed if the activities have a direct link. If this is the case, you must apply to vary your environmental permit to include the previously exempt activities before the 6-month transition window is reached if you still want to carry out the activities.
• ?Operating an exempt waste operation at a site with an installation permit is already prohibited, if this is being undertaken a discussion should be had with your local regulatory officer.

A direct link applies where an activity is undertaken utilising an exemption:

-????????? Is carried on adjacent to a permitted waste operation; and

-????????? Is carried out under the control of the same operator; or

-????????? Uses the same staff, equipment or infrastructure without which the exempt activity

could not take place.

-?????????Within 6 months of the changes to EPR the amount of waste permitted to be handled on sites with multiple exemptions will be restricted to the lowest limit set in the registered exemptions. For example, if you hold two exemptions and one allows 50 tonnes of wood to be stored and the other allows 70 tonnes of wood to be stored, you will only be permitted to store 50 tonnes of wood, not 120 tonnes and not 70 tonnes.

Some exemptions will be removed. These are: -

-??U16: using depolluted end-of-life vehicles for parts;

- T8: mechanically treating end-of-life tyres;

-?T9: recovering scrap metal.

Some exemptions will be changed. These are:

??????????????? - U1: use of waste in construction;

??????????????? - T4: preparatory treatments, such as, baling, sorting, shredding;

??????????????? - T6: treating waste wood and waste plant matter by chipping, shredding, cutting or pulverising;

??????????????? -T12: manually treating waste;

??????????????? - D7: burning waste in the open;

- S1: store waste in secure containers;

??????????????? - S2: storing waste in a secure place.

Qs and As

What if operations are no longer covered by new limits and conditions in revised exemptions? - Review all your waste operations to determine if they can be changed to meet new limits and conditions - perhaps by handling or storing less waste, or not accepting a particular waste. Otherwise, you must apply for an environmental permit to continue your waste operation.

What if operations are no longer covered by exemptions, and you cannot change them? - If you are not able to comply, you must either have an environmental permit, or discontinue your waste operations.

What do you do if you have registered multiple exemptions? - It is already illegal to register certain combinations of exemptions on your site, for example a storage exemption in combination with a treatment exemption.

Check to ensure all exemptions registered are currently legal and required.

If all exemptions are needed, you can only operate to the lowest quantity limit for each waste type.

What should operators do if they have an environmental permit for a waste operation and also have registered exemptions at, or next to, their permitted area? - Registered exemptions on a permitted site will be prohibited at the end of a 6-month transitional period.

To continue an exempt activity, you will need to apply to vary your permit to include the previously exempt activity within it.

What happens if you hold an environmental permit for waste management and an adjacent business has registered exemptions? - If there is no “direct link” between the two, there is no need to take any action.

What if you have an environmental permit for an installation and have also registered waste exemptions on your permitted site? - It will be necessary discuss with the site officer: - whether the exempt operation is a directly associated activity and a variation is needed; whether the installation boundary has been correctly identified; or whether the exempt activity must stop.

The next step

If you hold an exemption, you will be contacted by the Regulator when the changes take place. You can keep up to date with any updated guidance and information here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/register-your-waste-exemptions-environmental-permits.

Enzygo’s permitting team (https://enzygo.com/permits/) is, of course, here to provide detailed bespoke advice on your current situation and prepare permit variations and applications on your behalf.

Steph Charnaud - Director of Permitting