Waste Disposal: Regulation

(asked on 21st March 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to raise public awareness of the importance of waste collection by operatives following relevant regulations and guidance.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 29th March 2022

The Environment Act 2021 amends the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to introduce new requirements around waste collection in England. Our 2019 and 2021 'Consistency in Household and Business Recycling' consultations looked into the detail of these requirements.

We intend to publish statutory guidance to help local authorities, and other waste collectors, comply with the separate collection requirements and may also include best practice around collection. We will consult with the sector on the content of the guidance in 2022, following the outcome of our 2021 consultation on consistency in recycling.

The Environment Agency is the regulator of this system.

For business waste collections the onus is on company owners to check that the waste collection companies they are using are registered with the Environment Agency and have appropriate permits. If they are found to be using a company that is not registered, they could face criminal charges.

Alongside the statutory guidance, we will lay regulations which will include materials in scope of collection, timings for introduction and any exemptions to collection. Further details on this will be outlined in our Government response, which will be published in due course.

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