Changes to Environment Agency Hazardous Waste Regulations

From the 01 April 2016 the registration of premises with the Environment Agency is no longer required.

Producers of hazardous waste have two options available to them:

1. Companies such as Novus Environmental are offering to create the relevant codes and to ensure they are being implemented across your business to ensure compliance with the changes.
2. You may wish to assign your own code; this must be in the format of the 6 digit code.

Guidance from the Environment Agency is that the code must be the first 6 digits of your business name.

You many already have been given a code from another service provider. It is important that all of your providers have and use the relevant code.

For companies that fail to comply with the changes will result in waste management companies being legally unable to collect hazardous waste.

More information on changes to Hazardous Waste Regulations

Two aspects of the Hazardous Waste Regulations changed on 1 April 2016:

Producers of hazardous waste in England will no longer need to notify their premises with the Environment Agency.
The format of the unique consignment note code, which appears on every consignment note, will change.

Registration

Customers who produce or store 500kg or more of hazardous waste per year will NOT need to register their premises with the Environment Agency from 1 April 2016.
These changes only apply to England. It does not affect premises in Wales who should continue to register with Natural Resources Wales.
The regulatory position statement (RPS) on premises notification is now redundant (since 1 April 2016). Because this RPS interacted with consignment, the consignment aspects are under review and are expected to change.

Consignment Note Code Format

To accommodate the above, the format of the consignment note code changed on 1 April 2016 regardless of the amount of hazardous waste produced, stored or handled.
From 1 April 2016, if waste is produced in England, the first six characters of the consignment note code (currently the premises registration number) must be replaced by the first six letters or numbers (not symbols) of the business name.
‘EXEMPT’ will no longer be used.
The second set of characters will continue to be five numbers or letters of the waste producer/holder’s choosing. This may, in a few specified occasions, be followed by an additional letter.
If waste is moved from Wales into England, the consignment note code will not be changed. Welsh producers will still be required to register their premises with Natural Resources Wales and use this in their consignment note code. If the waste is moved from England into Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland from 1 April 2016, the consignment note code will need to use the new format.
There will be guidance on gov.uk from 1 April 2016.
SIC code

The requirement for the SIC code on the consignment note will change. We currently accept SIC 2003, SIC 2007 or NACE on the consignment note. The change in the Regulations from 1 April 2016, specifying SIC 2007, matches the requirements for non-hazardous waste. We currently have a Regulatory Position to allow different SIC publications and the use of NACE codes to be used; we will be continuing to allow the use of NACE under the RPS.