Changes to hazardous waste legislation in England

The hazardous waste registration process is changing for businesses in England. From 1st April, registration with the Environment Agency is no longer required, and all existing registrations will become void on this date.

These changes are for England only. Businesses in Wales will need to continue to register with Natural Resources Wales.

Neil Curtis, managing director at B&M Waste, said: “Waste traceability, from production to final destination, is still required, which means consignment notes are still a mandatory document. The format of these, however, is due to change on April 1st at the same time, as the registration process is no longer necessary. This is something we are already planning into our hazardous waste departments’ documentation.”

The details of these changes to hazardous waste consignment notes effectively mean that if hazardous waste is produced in England the first six characters of the consignment note code must be replaced by the first six characters of the business name. The second set of characters will continue to be five numbers or letters of the waste producer’s choosing.