From 30th October 2007, under new European-wide legislation, all non-hazardous waste must be treated before it can be landfilled and the Environment Agency is placing the responsibility for compliance on waste producers.
These regulations are the final stages of the European Landfill Directive and have been implemented to reduce our reliance on landfill as a disposal option and to ensure that landfill has less impact on the environment.
For the waste to be considered as pre-treated it must comply with the three-point test for the definition of “treatment”.
Treatment must:
- Be a physical, thermal, chemical or biological process which can include sorting
- Alter the characteristics of the waste and
- Do so in order to:
- Reduce its volume; or
- Reduce its hazardous nature; or
- Facilitate its handling; or
- Enhance its recovery
One of the simplest forms of pre-treatment for general waste is categorizing a proportion of each waste stream and segregating it for recycling, which could be done either by you or by a waste management contractor at a sorting facility.