9.0 Waste Acceptance Criteria and Procedures
9.1 Waste Acceptance Criteria
9.1.1 Annex II of the Landfill Directive states that a uniform waste classification and acceptance procedure should be developed by a technical committee, known as the "Technical Adaptation Committee" (or TAC). This is a committee of EU officials, chaired by the Commission, set up under the Waste Framework Directive. This committee has also been tasked with developing criteria which have to be fulfilled for waste to be accepted at the different landfill classes, and for certain hazardous waste to be accepted in landfills for non-hazardous waste. It will also develop criteria over and above that developed for hazardous and non-hazardous landfills to determine what waste can be accepted in underground storage.
9.1.2 The criteria will elaborate exactly what, for example, inert waste is, and set the level of contaminants acceptable in such waste for it still to be considered as eligible for a particular waste category. The Scottish Executive recognises that industry is keen to have a clearer indication of exactly what wastes can go to which landfills, and so it is eager to push this work forward as quickly as possible.
9.1.3 Waste acceptance criteria can be based either on a list of accepted or refused wastes, tests for wastes, or both. The Scottish Executive believes that the most appropriate approach for inert waste acceptance procedures is to develop a list of waste which is invariably inert and which can be landfilled in such sites without testing, provided that the materials are uncontaminated. For any waste not on the list, or for any waste for which there is a possibility of contamination, tests should be carried out to determine if the waste is inert. Latest proposals from the TAC indicate that this will be the chosen approach. It is likely that a similar approach will be adopted for developing waste acceptance criteria for hazardous waste landfills and non-hazardous waste landfills.
9.1.4 The Directive states that the property-based criteria for acceptance of waste must generally be most extensive for inert waste landfills and least extensive for hazardous waste landfills owing to the higher environmental protection level of hazardous waste sites.
9.2 Waste Acceptance Procedures
9.2.1 The Landfill Directive outlines procedures for the acceptance of waste at a landfill site. The Directive states that the general characterisation and testing of waste to determine whether it can be accepted at a site must be based on the following three-level hierarchy:
Level 1: Basic Characterisation. This constitutes a thorough determination, according to standardised analysis and behaviour-testing methods, of the short and long-term leaching behaviour and/or characteristic properties of the waste.
Level 2: Compliance testing. This constitutes periodical testing by simpler standardised analysis and behaviour-testing methods to determine whether a waste complies with permit conditions and/or specific reference criteria. The tests focus on key variables and behaviour identified by basic characterisation.
Level 3: On-site verification. This constitutes rapid check methods to confirm that a waste is the same as that which has been subjected to compliance testing and that which is described in the accompanying documents. It may merely consist of a visual inspection of a load of waste before and after unloading at the landfill site. The holder or operator must have documentation to show that the waste can be accepted at the site according to the conditions of the permit and that the waste fulfils the acceptance criteria set out in Annex II (discussed in Paragraphs 9.1.1-9.1.4).
9.2.2 Certain waste types may be exempted from testing at level 1, due to impracticability of testing, unavailability of appropriate testing procedures and acceptance criteria, or overriding legislation. Each waste load arriving at the gate of a landfill must be subjected to level 3 verification.
9.2.3 Comparing such procedures with current practice, Waste Management Paper 26B, Section 8.33, refers to the three level procedure outlined above in its guidance on waste characterisation and testing. However, this is not statutory at present. Furthermore, it is likely that waste acceptance will include compliance with leaching tests. This will involve a change to current practice.
9.2.4 Some of these procedural requirements for waste acceptance may be passed back to the producer. In particular, the producer may be required to be responsible for conducting the basic characterisation of his waste. The producer is likely to be in a better position than the landfill operator to conduct this characterisation as he will have a better idea of the type of waste he is producing, and he is likely to be producing a more limited range of wastes than is being accepted by the landfill operator. Some landfill operators may also pass the requirement for compliance testing back to the producer.
9.2.5 The operator should keep a register of the quantities and characteristics of the waste deposited, indicating origin, date of delivery, identity of the producer or collector in the case of municipal waste, and, in the case of hazardous waste, the precise location on the site. This information should be made available to the competent national and Community statistical authorities when requested and preferably in a format specified for statistical purposes. The operator should also provide written acknowledgement of receipt of each delivery accepted on the site is required and the operator should notify the competent authority of the non-acceptance of any waste.
9.2.6 The WMLR 1994, Schedule 4, Part I, Paragraph 14 requires a waste disposal establishment to keep a record of the quantity, nature, origin and, where relevant, the destination, frequency of collection, mode of transport and treatment method of any waste disposed of. The Duty of Care Regulations require a transfer note to be completed, signed and kept by the parties involved in the transfer of waste. The requirements outlined in Paragraph 9.2.5 will therefore not require a change to current practice.
9.2.7 The PPC Regulations will need to be extended to make the Directive's requirements statutory. Possible mechanisms for ensuring the necessary characterisation and testing has been conducted on the waste and that the waste can be accepted at a landfill site are discussed in Paragraph 4.9.
9.2.8 The Directive states that a European standard for sampling of waste will be developed. Until this standard is approved by Member States, national standards and procedures may be applied. At present there is no national standard for the sampling of waste. However, there is a standard currently under development by CEN, the European standards setting body of which the British Standards Institute is a member. One option would be to adopt this draft as our national standard prior to its adoption as a CEN standard. This would only be feasible if the standard was considered sufficiently advanced and available. Views on this approach, and other proposals for a national standard, are welcome.